


What's Up Danger

by iwriteshipsnotsailthem



Series: Spider-Man Klance AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Awkward Keith (Voltron), Gun Violence, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, KEITH HAS A BIG FAT GAY CRUSH ON LANCE THAT'S THE PLOT, Keith (Voltron) as Spider-Man, M/M, Pidge | Katie Holt is So Done, Pining Keith (Voltron), Robbery, Shiro is There, it's very very minor and no shots are fired just a warning, lance is a cutie, spider-man au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-02 23:56:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21170006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwriteshipsnotsailthem/pseuds/iwriteshipsnotsailthem
Summary: Keith's still trying to adjust to his new role of New York's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and now that school's back he's got a whole lot more to deal with. This includes trying to juggle his academics, keeping his secret hidden from everyone especially from his Spider-Man hating cop brother and most importantly not looking like a total moron in front of the boy he likes.Let's just say it's not an easy gig.





	1. Dumb Spider

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone and I'm back with another Klance fic! I've been working on this for a couple of months so I hope you'll all like it because I loved writing it ❤
> 
> The title is named after a song from Into the Spider-Verse Soundtrack and it you haven't heard it please fix yo priorities and go listen to it

"You're insane."

Keith flicked his wrists out by his sides, shaking away the nerves and that basic human nature of wanting to run away from the situation he had put himself in. The built in trait of wanting to stay alive, to not do things that would typically lead to certain death.

"I have to test it," Keith said, voice probably muffled by the red mask he had been wearing for the past couple of months. It took the whole summer to upgrade his hoodie and sweatpants to the real deal. Now with his suit he didn't look like a kid dressing up for Halloween. Maybe people would start to take him seriously from now on.

Pidge over the communication device she had implanted into the mask sighed in resignation.

"If you die, I'm telling Shiro the truth. Better that than suicide."

Keith gritted his teeth and kicked at the ground like a raring bull.

"Go ahead, I'll be dead so I won't have to deal with his lecture anyway."

"Easy for you to say. _I'll_ be the once facing it."

"Have faith," Keith said, looking off the 100 foot drop. The city of New York City buzz to life, lights and cars travelling and bringing artificial beauty. The city was prettier at night. You couldn't see all the ugly as easy, all that was wrong. It seemed ironic since it was the time more of the action happened.

"I have faith in my web fluid, that stuff won't break for anything. But one wrong move and-"

"I've got this," he said gruffer than he should of. Keith walked to the middle of the roof of the building, allowing him enough room for a run up. "The new suit you designed is way better than anything I could have ever done. I have this. We're going to make this city a safer place."

"Says the guy who can't even form a proper sentence around his crush who you've been in love with since... I don't know? _The beginning of time_. Are you ever going to confess or just continue watching from afar like a creep?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he deflected the subject.

"So, I take it we're going with the 'watching from afar' option."

"If you haven't noticed I'm a little too busy chasing bad guys to be dealing with boys," Keith murmured.

There was a buzz of silence.

"Then stop day dreaming and go get them Spider-Man."

Keith grinned and began the sprint, arms and legs pumping with each stride. The hair on his arms raised as he got closer to the edge of the building. His stomach lurched up with each bound, adrenaline shooting through his veins that fueled him over the edge.

He jumped.

Then he swung.

* * *

Keith shot awake before the hand could come into contact with his shoulder. The heightened senses were freaky like that, always on alert and ready to throw down anyone before his brain could even register what he was doing. It was handy in some ways, easier on him in a fight to just let his instincts take over.

He's glad his brain was aware of his surroundings otherwise he would've just thrown a poor unsuspecting peer face first down onto the ground. It would've been the cherry on top of how to end the first week of the school year.

Keith flinched and looked towards the person who had woken him up.

There were a lot of idiots in this school. Out of every one of those idiots, this idiot was the last one he wanted to accidentally hurt.

Lance blinked at the sudden movement, retracting his hand with an apologetic smile.

"Hey, sorry to break up your catching up on your z's time, but the meeting is starting soon," Lance whispered, moving to sit on top of the desk next to him. He crossed over leg over the other, gaining Keith's attention to the limb. The rip on the knee of Lance's jeans showed a slither of brown skin. "You know how JJ gets in these meetings. Starts acting like the school Newspaper is The New York Times," he joked with a roll of his eyes.

"Yeah," Keith murmured, wiping his mouth to make sure there wasn't any drool from his impromptu nap. It's wet. _Great_. He couldn't control the way his face flushed red.

"But man, I feel you, I almost fell asleep in class this morning. Guess we're still not adjusted to being in back at school yet. Probably to be expected, it's only the first week," he said, smiling as he thought. "Or maybe it's more that Mrs Fairfield is boring as the class she teaches. I think I'd rather watch grass grow than listen to her monotone voice drawl out the quadratic formula steps."

"Yeah... probably," Keith mumbled out. He hated how awkward he got around this guy, words stuck in his throat and stomach kicked with nerves rendering him useless. He always acted like a complete moron, but Lance never brought it up, just smiled with his perfectly straight and bright white teeth.

Speaking of, he was doing it now, like he was happy to get more than a word out of him. "So, have a good summer? Did you do much?"

Keith's brain thought back to his new suit and stopping a few robberies.

"Not much. The usual." Lance actually laughed at that one and of course it had Keith's heart skipping like a child with a jump rope.

"A part of me finds that hard to believe. You look _insane!" _Keith's head tilted involuntarily. Lance laughed. "Oh, come on! Like you haven't noticed it."

"Noticed what?" He asked, genuinely confused.

Lance's mouth opened, smile growing with a huff of pleasant disbelief. "Dude, you got like, hella jacked over the summer." The heat raised from Keith's cheeks to his ears. "It's like, the glow up of the century. Don't think nobody noticed. _Everyone_ noticed. How the hell did you manage that? I could really use the tips. You've inspired me."

He firstly needed to wrap his head around the fact _Lance_ had commented on his appearance in a positive sense. That felt like something that Lance would say in his _literal_ dreams.

The next thing he had to figure out was how he could begin to explain that he got ripped from a radioactive spider and aerobatics from flinging himself from building to building.

"Uhhh..." _Come on Kogane, use that straight A brain for something!_ "Shiro put me on a work out regime and food plan," he chose which Lance 'ahhed' at, obviously getting the connection since everyone at this school knew Shiro. Golden boy and police officer hero. 

"Makes sense. Your brother is an absolute unit! Also did you get contacts? I almost didn't recognise you on Monday without your glasses."

"Yeah... contacts," Keith agreed slowly.

"So other than the new look, anything else happen?"

His brain grappled for something. He didn't want this conversation to end. "I took photos."

Lance beamed like Keith had told him he had just won the lottery.

"Nice to hear you're keeping your photography skills polished. We need you, you're the best our team has. Not to dig on the others, but they're pretty _meh,_ you've got an actual eye for it. I don't know how you always manage to make basic subjects so..." he emphasised with his hands, trying to find the right words, "So _prepossessing. _Like we could take another hundred pictures of the meat head football team, but _you_ somehow manage to make it worthwhile looking at." Keith felt his face go hot and forced his eyes away from the other boy's. He had no idea how to respond to that, but luckily Lance kept chatting. He was the chatty type. "But back on the subjects of summers, mine was very underwhelming if you were wondering. I think I worked most of it away."

"You got a job?" Keith asked, wanting to grasp onto any information on him that he could. Holding onto every single detail like it was treasure. He only really ever got to speak to Lance in the newspaper meetings and occasionally when him and Hunk sat at their table for lunch so time was pretty precious.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, my family own a corner shop. I spent my summer days cooking with grease and selling cigarettes."

"Oh, sounds..."

"Awful?" Lance asked, smile playful. "Yeah. That's one way to put it."

Keith opened his mouth to say something, bring out some sort of positive for Lance to hang onto because that's what he always did for everyone else, but fate had other plans. JJ, the newly appointed head of the school newspaper committee strutted in the room, looking over his team with a stern gaze. It somewhat reminded Keith of an army general waiting for one of his cadets to muck up just so they had an excuse to pick them up on it and publicly shame them for it.

"Welcome to Midtown High's School Newspaper team. If you're a Freshman, you probably aren't aware, but here, we take our job of giving the students the _highest_ quality of work and to share important news. If you're here just to kill time, or to have something to add to your college application you might as well leave now. This group is for people with-" JJ clutched he heart, "passion."

Lance looked to Keith and mouthed _yikes._

"Now we've got that out of the way, it's time to talk about sections. Student drawn, school friendly comic strips, anonymous advice section and the access to the Newspaper app was all authorised and will be added to this year. Of course there will be restrictions to make it school friendly."

"So, let's make it clear when you say restrictions," Lance spoke up, gaining the attention of the others in the meeting room. "You mean no talk of sex, drugs, alcohol and everything teens _actually_ want to read about."

A few people tittered around the room except for JJ, whose jaw clenched.

"Yes, Lance."

Lance leaned back, lazy smile on his face. "Duly noted."

There's always been that tension between JJ and Lance. It mostly came down to JJ not appreciating Lance's natural talent and way with words and people and how it made him a better writer. Keith wasn't even that fussy when it came to reading, and even he knew that Lance was leaps and bounds ahead of every other writer in this room. JJ relented him for it. The only real reason he's in charge of the paper this year is because he was a Senior and Lance was a Junior. Hierarchy of age rather than talent.

After that, everyone was given a subject for what their section or photos needed to be about and JJ set them all free to spend their Friday afternoon however they please. For Keith, his list of possibilities was limited to one option.

He sent a message to Shiro, letting him know he was going to hanging out with Pidge. It wasn't a complete lie, he was still going to be talking to her. Just not face to face, instead over the communication device in the mask.

Not that Shiro needed to know that.

In fact it, was something that his half-brother never needed to know. He had enough on his plate as is. The last thing he needed was knowing what Keith had been doing in his spare time. If his brother knew what was going on that was the end of it. The end of everything he had built himself up to be.

His patrol went smoothly for a Friday night, which was quite unusual considering it was the start of a new weekend. It always tended to be somebody out there looking for trouble, whether it be a bunch of dumb teenagers causing harmless havoc, or it was something a little more sinister. That included low-lives who are looking for extra cash to be able to spend on drugs or alcohol or whatever they were addicted to.

As his self appointed role of guardian of New York City, Keith was initially surprised by the lack of serious involvement with life threatening crimes. So far in his Spidey career he'd only ever really had to fight off muggers or someone with a gun who definitely didn't have the actual guts to pull trigger. But it wasn't like he had any villains or bad guys on his tail like in the movies. If anything, the biggest nuisance he'd faced so far was a tie between his very few fans wanting selfies and the police not accepting the fact he was there to stay and was willing to bend the rules if it meant keeping everyone safe.

"Can you just, I don't know? Go find that fukwit Griffin from school and go beat the shit out of him? I'm seriously about to lose brain cells from how bored I am." Keith could hear Pidge's grumbling tone through his communication device. The creak in the background indicated that she was spinning on her desk chair.

"You know that a quiet night is supposed to be good, right? It means no one's in any trouble."

"Bor-_ing_!" She groaned. "Can we clock out for the night? I doubt anything else is going to happen and if so someone else can deal with it."

"I'm Spider-Man, _I'm_ supposed to be the one who is _dealing with it_."

"Oh come on, it's late. I know you're just as tired as I am and let's face it, even with your freaky climbing walls show trick you're still just as useless as the rest of us if you're too exhausted to do anything."

She had a fair point. He was practically walking bone and jelly at this point. Head fuzzy and eyes drooping so much that the city lights were starting to fuzz.

"Fine. I'm heading back. Feel free to log off. It'll only take me about 10 minutes to swing back home."

"I think I will have to take you up on that offer. Mum's been bitching about me not spending time with the family. I'm supposed to be watching a family movie or some BS."

"Alright, I'll text you when I'm out of this suit."

"Don't die while I'm gone."

"I'll try my hardest. Don't die by Collen's hand."

"No promises."

Keith chuckled, shaking his head as he moved towards the edge of the building and jumped downwards. He was on his own.

There was something very therapeutic about swinging through the tall buildings. It was only him up there, all alone, the city noises buzzed out by the distance and the only people he saw were the ones watching him through their work office windows. 

It was tempting to just stay up here for hours for fun, but he really needed to get home before Shiro started asking questions about where he and Pidge had gone or what they were doing.

He landed on top of a building that was much shorter than the Skyscrapers. He was in the part of town where it was starting to get takeaway shops with different variety of cuisines and 7/11's.

He jumped over the small gaps of each roof and over alleyways with silent toes, a complete mystery in the middle of the night that nobody saw unless he wanted them to. It was probably too ironic to use the metaphor 'fly on the wall'.

He had somewhat dazed off by going through the motions of jumping and using his web to sling himself across each roof. He was only pulled back into reality when his Spidey-Senses tingled, but instead of a tingle it felt like a shock wave.

He stopped on the roof he was currently standing on and peered around him, looking for any signs and that something was amiss.

It wasn't till he caught glimpse of a bulked man awkwardly holding something in his belt entering a shop that Keith realised there might have been something a little more going on than just going to get a packet of gum. The man looked over his shoulder twice and down the street before opening the door.

Yep.

Definitely up to something.

A few months ago Keith would have waited and stuck it out to see if the man really was going to pull something, but he had seen too many store robberies to know what the signs were so like hell he was going to let that guy traumatized some poor cashier.

He crawled down the building when he heard shouting and picked up his speed. Although some distance away he could see clearly the man grab into his coat and pull out a gun. The cashier face was hidden by the discount stickers displayed on the window but Keith assumed they were terrified.

From his position on the side of a building he shot his web, sticking it to the handle of the door so when he pulled himself across the street it opened, allowing Keith to slide in in One Fell Swoop and into the shop. The speed of the movement gave him enough momentum to be able to swing across the room and grab the gun. The gunman did not have a second to be able to sync as Keith propelled then kicked himself off the wall and back into his direction. He grabbed his hands and shot webs so that both of them were stuck together behind his back like handcuffs.

Keith then proceeded to throw the gun in the air and shoot his web shooters so it would stick to the roof and out of everybody's reach.

This at all been done in a total of 3 seconds. Just enough time to give the harmed robber whiplash from confusion and for the cashier to stumble back and duck down under the counter where it was safest.

It only took another two seconds to grab the man by the makeshift cuffs and drag him to the wall and stick him defenseless against the plaster, rendering him unable to move a muscle.

He was an older man with a scraggly beard and a feral look in his eyes. Definitely on drugs.

"Not that you have much of a choice, but you're going to stick right here until the cops come the collect your sorry ass," Keith grumbled before walking away towards that counter. "Hey, uh... it's alright to come up now if you want. I'm not going to be hurting you."

It felt stupid to have to remind people that, even ones he was saving. People just didn't trust Spider-Man yet. It was probably just here of not understanding, of not knowing the mystery behind the suit and walking up walls.

The cashier slowly peaked up from behind the counter and stood as he looked him in the eye.

"Holy crow," the boy with the familiar face whispered.

It was a good think that he wore a mask because in situations like this no one could see his true emotions. Right now he was very much in shock because in front of him was the one and only Lance McClain.

Keith's mind went blank for a solid moment before he clicked and remembered he was supposed to be, Spider-Man, not some poor teen with a hopeless crush.

"Are you okay?" he asked, taking a quick look over and Lance to see if there was any damage other than his glassy eyes and shaking limbs. Lance nodded quickly and glanced to the man stuck to wall.

"What do I... what do I do about him?" he croaked out. Keith had never heard his voice lack so much confidence. He wasn't the charismatic, class clown with a talent for writing, he was just a scared 16 year old boy.

"He won't get out of there anytime soon, don't worry. Have you called the police?" Lance nodded again. "Right. I'll stay here with you until they arrive then, but, uh, I'll have to leave as soon as they show up. The police aren't very fond of me."

"That's unfair," Lance whispered out, shaking his head in display, "you saved my life. They should be thanking you not reprimanding you."

It wasn't the first time that Keith had heard that line and it probably wouldn't be the last.

Keith shrugged. "It is what it is."

"Well in that case I thank you on everyone's behalf. You're a hero dude."

Again, Keith was thankful for the costume hiding his face since his cheeks were now redder than his mask.

"I'm no... I'm just... just doing what's right."

Lance smiled bright, outshining all the lights in New York City in the dark and as thrilling as swinging through skyscrapers.

"That's exactly what hero would say."

He was practically suffocating under and the mask with all the heat radiating off his cheeks. Goddammit Lance. He would have stumbled on his words if it weren't for the sirens blaring in the distance signalling his escape card.

"You should go out back," Lance insisted already moving towards the side of the room and out of the door to a back of the shops with the trashcans. "They won't see you leave this way."

"Thank you..."

"Lance," he filled in, assuming that's what Keith's pause meant.

"Lance," he said. He shot about his web shooters and held himself open to the roof. "Stay safe Lance."

Lance grinned, hands clasped behind his back. "You too Spider-Man."

The alleyway started to flash blue and red as the police cars halted outside the building. It distracted Lance enough to give Keith time to swing off into the darkness before he could say another word.

* * *

The night time procedure with taking off his suit and making it seem like he was a normal 16 year old boy had been ingrained into his mind. It was all motor memory now. Jump through the window, take off the suit as fast as possible before Shiro walked in and then shove it into a box under his bed, but not before putting a bunch of jerk off magazines on top. No way Shiro would look further than a bunch of his brother's porno magazines (that he didn't even use, the internet was a thing now) and find the suit at the bottom of the box.

His brain was still strumming with adrenaline over what just happened. It was one of the least violent robberies he had dealt with, it was dealt with quickly, finished in a matter of seconds, but it being Lance the one he had saved from getting a bullet in the skull made him tremble. He hated seeing that fearing on Lance's face when he was always usually saw the boy smiling.

He barely had time to even process it all when the front door opened and shut. Heavy footsteps made Keith scramble to his desk and open up the closest textbook he could find, which just happened to be biology. Shiro knocked at the door and then crept it open.

"Hey Keith, sorry I'm late. Have you been home by yourself long?"

Of course Shiro didn't need to know that he had literally just arrived seconds before he had. 

"No, not really. Just been studying. How was work?"

He was proud of his brother for the amount of success that he had achieved in is profession as a police officer. He was a kind and caring, 100% the type of person to put their life on the line for another. He was a great cop, one of the best.

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck, eyes on his shoes. It was a good indicator the next topic was going to be awkward or touchy.

"There was a robbery at a corner store. I'm not supposed to say this, but Lance was involved." Shiro knew of Keith's crush on Lance only because Pidge blabbed and told him. They both liked to give him grief over it but he knew how much he liked the guy so it wasn't the time for jokes. "Poor kid was scared senseless."

"He's okay though, right?"

Shiro sighed, pausing to lean against the door frame. He looked exhausted.

"Yeah it was lucky, apparently Spider-Man came in before anything bad could happen." The words seemed like a strain to admit. It wasn't all that surprising. Again, coppers hated Spider-Man. That included his own brother. And maybe _hate_ wasn't the right word for how Shiro felt about Spider-Man. Hindrance probably was a better fit.

"There's a lot of stuff going on at the moment in this city. Probably best you come home earlier until it all settles down."

"Okay." Keith wasn't going to argue with Shiro on this, he didn't want to worry him. It wasn't fair when he had enough to worry about.

"I'm exhausted so I'm gonna hit the hay now. Goodnight, I won't be there in the morning but I'll be back by lunch."

Keith was already used to the procedure of Shiro not being home. He worked hard. Too hard. At least he was be able to go around the city without having to worry about making up excuses to where he'd been and what he'd been doing.

Shiro looked like he was going to say something, but instead gave Keith a short nod before shutting the door behind him.

Keith exhaled and let his shoulders loosen for the first time since the robbery. However much he wanted to just pass out, sleep it didn't come. He spent most of the night staring up at his ceiling, thinking about Lance's terrified expression. 

* * *

Keith was surprised when on Monday morning at lunch Hunk Garrett took a seat beside Pidge at their usual spot in the cafeteria.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked, grateful there was no resistance.

Hunk was a pretty cool guy, the type was nice to anyone and everyone, including those that nobody else would talk to, which made sense to why he had befriended Pidge in their chemistry class. A lot of people tended to avoid her because of her age and her obvious brilliance.

“Where's Lance?” Pidge asked looking around as if she were waiting for Lance himself to pop up at any moment. It seemed unnatural for there to be no Lance wherever Hunk was. From what Keith knew, he and Lance had been best friends for as long as they could remember.

The boy let out a gust of a sigh.

“Man, poor guy is getting bombarded with everyone asking questions about what happened on Friday.”

Pidge’s brow arched. “What happened on Friday?”

Keith flinched, remembering that he had yet to tell her what had happened at the corner store with the robbery.

“You didn't hear? The shop Lance’s family owns got robbed and Spider-Man totally saved him from getting shot in the head.”

She blinked, turning to give Keith the side eye. “Did he now?" She asked looking at Hunk but directing her question at Keith. She was going to be pissed at him for going solo.

Hunk nodded. “Yeah it’s super scary stuff. It’s even worse that people won’t leave him alone and keep asking about it. Isn’t it enough that he went through at once? Let alone having to re-tell it again and again for their entertainment. I’m just happy that he’s okay, well as okay as you can be after that.”

“Yeah, lucky Spider-Man was there to save the day.” Pidge looked at him with narrowed eyes. “I wonder how he does it.”

Keith rolled his eyes and gave her an expression that told her he would explain later.

“At first I was unsure about that guy, seems crazy to me, but if he’s saving people like he is now I can tell you that he has my full support. He’s starting to build up quite the rep.”

Keith didn’t jump when suddenly there was a tray being sat next to his. He knew someone had been approaching after all with those weird senses he’d developed. What did surprise Keith though was who sat down.

Lance.

He wasn’t sure what he expected. Maybe for Lance to be down, timid, tired from lack of sleep, but he looked like he always did. Bright eyed and ready to warm a room with his radiance.

He let out a long exhale and looked around the rest of the group.

“It’s so hard to be this famous. You are almost get shot down _once _and the whole town is ready to ask you 1 million questions about Spider-Man that I certainly don’t have the answer to. Example, what did Spider-Man guns feel like? Bitch I don’t know, he didn’t fling _me _up in the air like a pack of peanuts! And how many times do I have to tell them that I didn’t ask what his fucking Zodiac sign is just to see if your compatible or not? It wasn’t a speed date, he just saved me from getting blasted to my next life as a bug or something boring.”

“So what can you tell us about Spider-Man?” Pidge asked giving Keith a sneaky smirk. Keith took a bite of his sandwich to hide his interest in Lance’s response.

“I can tell you that his ass looks pretty damn good in spandex.”

Keith proceeded to choke on his hand and cheese roll.

Pidge snickered behind her hand as Lance patted him on the back which made him cough even more.

The look on Pidge’s face said everything; revenge is sweet.

* * *

“Care to explain to me why you said that you were going home and ended up saving Lance from a robber?” Pidge questioned, leaning against her locker before class started. Keith pulled out his textbooks from his that was beside hers.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he muttered, closing his locker door.

“Like _hell _isn’t a big deal! If it weren’t a big deal you would’ve told me. You know how dangerous that could’ve been? If Lance had figured it out--”

“Well he didn’t!”

“But if he _did _we’d be screwed. You do realise that right?”

“You make it sound like I did this on purpose! I had the voice disguise on as well. Calm down.”

“Oh, so it was a _coincidence _that you just _happened _to walk by where Lance worked? Like hell I’m supposed to believe that. You’re probably watching him from afar like the sad, pining, stalker gay you are!”

“I wasn’t _stalking _him and I didn’t even know where he worked before Friday," he hissed. "I had no idea.”

“So you _weren’t _following him and using your creepy walking along walls ability to spy on your crush?”

“What? No! Pidge I was on my way home when my senses kicked in!”

“Good, it’s better to keep it that way. The more people that know about your secret the more dangerous for everyone.”

“I’m not dumb Pidge. I know that.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m glad to know that you aren’t using your powers to be a stupid stalker. But hey! At least Lance likes your butt.”

Kids face went red. “Spider-Man‘s butt,” he corrected.

“Keith, you’re _literally _Spider-Man.”

“Don’t remind me,” Keith grumbled before trudging to class.

* * *

“Dude, I think you have a freshman admirer,” Lance snickered, nodding over towards a group of girls who glanced over occasionally and giggled as they finished up their articles for the paper.

Keith scrunched up his nose as he looked back down to his camera, sorting through all the ‘Welcome Back’ photos the had taken.

“I doubt I’m the one their looking at when you’re here,” Keith said, clicking through pictures and choosing which ones would suit best for the front page. 

Plus what's with this admirer stuff. He’s not even sure why Lance would insinuate that considering he knew very well of what Keith’s sexual orientation was. 

After a second of silence he looked up and noticed Lance's sheepish smile and went red.

“I mean - you know - since you had that whole thing with Spider-Man. Everyone’s jealous,” he stammered through that hell of a sentence, trying to cover up his words. Keith noticed Lance sparkle diminish slightly as he leaned back in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah, maybe,” he mumbled.

Something flashed across Lance’s face that Keith haven't seen many times on the boy. It was a troubled look and somewhat resembled the fear he saw his eyes the night of the attempted robbery.

“How are you holding up?" Keith asked after clearing his throat.

“It’s not like I got it hurt or anything,” Lance insisted. “I’m okay.”

“Just because you didn’t get hurt physically doesn’t mean that you aren’t hurting.” Keith watched Lance pause as a thought over that sentence. “You know Shiro? He’s a police officer.”

“He was there the scene,” Lance said quietly.

“Yeah, well he sees a lot of bad stuff happen every day and he is affected by that sometimes. It just hurts another way, no less valid than physical pain. It’s okay to be scared. It was a scary thing that happened to you.”

Lance blinked slowly, looking closely at Keith’s face as if for the first time. After a few long moments he chuckled lightly and smiled.

“I think that’s the longest sentence I’ve ever heard you say. Thank you, though. It’s been pretty hectic lately and I still have to work at the corner shop otherwise my family are gonna go out of business.”

“Wait? You’re not even going to take a break?”

Lance shrugged. “My family offered but we really can’t afford to do that at the moment. My brother has recently moved back home with his two kids after he and his wife got divorced so they need all the help they can get.” Lance shook his head, as if dismissing the idea. "I mean, it’s totally fine, I’ll be fine going back. Obviously a little nervous. I’m honestly probably more worried about walking home than actually working.”

“Walking home?”

“Yeah, mama is too busy helping out with my niece and nephew to come pick me up. Which is totally cool and I’m fine with it. I just, I don’t know? I guess it freaks me out a little, walking by myself after what happened.” He shook his head again, bringing back the bright smile shining on his face and twinkle in his eyes. “But it’s all good, man. I might have learnt a thing or two from Spidey and probably could totally take someone out now. Now,” Lance grabbed Keith’s camera, “show me which of your masterpieces is going to be splattered over the front page of our prestigious school paper.”

They clicked through the photos together but Keith’s mind was still trapped on the thought of a nervous Lance walking home by himself after having a gun pointed to his head.

Suddenly he got the idea.

* * *

“Are we checking out for the night?” Pidge asked as Keith opened on of his backpacks that he previously webbed to the side of the building and pulled out a granola bar. He sat down, legs dangling off the edge of the Skyscraper as he munched (sometimes he got peckish while swinging, sue him).

“Yeah, I might just stick around and watch the sunset. View’s pretty up here.”

Pidge snickered on the other end of the line. “Watching the sunset? What kind of cliché bullshit have you been ingesting? Is it inspiring you to write poetry for Lance? _Oh, Lance, how I wish to touch your golden skin like the sunset warms my–_“

“Do you ever stop talking?" Keith asked, mouthful of granola murmurings his words.

“No, plus talking is part of my job. It’s literally the only thing I can do to help you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re not cool enough to have superpowers like me.”

“No, but I _am _cool enough to build your equipment and suits, you little freak of nature." Keith laughed and shoved the granola packet back into his backpack and zipped it up before putting his mask back on.

“Well this freak of nature is going off the clock for the rest of the night. Feel free to go back to designing that robot thing that you had going on with Hunk.”

There’s a noise on the other end that Keith assumed was in response to her stretching her arms above her head. “I probably should. I promised to have those plans in by tomorrow before our robotics meeting.”

“No wonder people call us nerds.”

“It’s better than being dumb.”

“True. Catch you later?”

“You shall see me tomorrow wanting to hate my life at school that makes us all suffer. Stay safe and don’t get into any trouble this time without me. There’s a reason we do this as a team and that is so I make sure you don’t impulsively get yourself killed.”

“Roger that, Impulse Control.”

There was a click indicated that she had gone offline and that was Keith’s invitation to head back down to a certain corner store.

Pidge was right.

Keith had no impulse control.

He leaps headfirst into things. Metaphorically speaking he doesn’t think of his words and speaks quite openly with the exception being in front of Lance. Literally speaking, he just jumped face first down off the building and was picking up incredible speed before swinging his arms up and activating his web shooters. He glided with precision and spontaneity through the tall buildings of the city he had grown up in.

NYC had never been perfect. Far from it. He had learnt that pretty quickly after what happened to his father and mother. But now he could safely say that he knew his pops and mother would be pretty damn proud of him what he has achieved so far in his short journey of superhero-ism. He had been so righteously unselfish with what power had given to him but it also selfish in a few ways.

And if he thought this one selfish deed of making sure Lance got home safe so he could sleep soundly even though he was gonna get his ass kicked by Pidge then so be it. No way in hell he would’ve slept tonight if he didn’t know the certainty that Lance got home in one piece.

Since he had developed these powers they had become quite the master of New York City and where he was at each and every point. He would even give taxis drivers are run for their money in knowing where and what everything was. It probably had something to do with the perception. You could see everything and anything from these heights.

Without his mask his face would’ve been slapped silly with the severity of the wind as he flew through each building and got closer to his location. The sun had set, leaving it to the artificial lights to illuminate the quieting streets.

Keith followed the path of the top of the buildings that led him to the corner shop that only days ago had been the scene of a crime. From his position on top of the lower landing building he had the perfect view of Lance locking up the shop.

He was quick to turn around, shove his hands in his pocket to block it from the night air and begin his walk down the city streets.

Lance got to a bus stop and got on, which was a little more difficult to keep up with. He had to zip through traffic as people rush to go home after a busy work day. Once Lance was off the bus he was walking again.

Keith didn’t know Lance well enough to have been to his house and to know where he lived. Sure they were somewhat friends, but they weren’t _close._ The main reasons they knew each other was both of their respective best friends (Pidge and Hunk) were friends with each other.

But he did know he lived close enough to the city that he could hear sirens in the distance from police cars. That had been something mentioned offhandedly once and Keith of course held onto the information like a lifeline.

Lance eventually got off the bus and Keith had to be a little more sneaky. Following on from the roof to roof gave the perception of Lance looking so small in comparison to the world around him. Maybe he was small in the grand scheme of things. Keith was in no way in hell letting that stop him from believing the boy was such a vital part to his everyday life.

Sometimes, when Keith had been out late patrol the only thing that made him get up and out of bed was knowing that he was going to see Lance at the school newspaper meetings or pass by him in the corridor.

Keith crept closer to the end of the last building and realised this was where he needed to start getting creative if he didn’t want Lance to spot him.

He jumped on the top of the light pole and shimmied down. It was in that moment he was thankful that Pidge wasn’t there to make some sort of stripper joke.

He kept his distance. Dodging through buildings and houses and hiding behind trees as he kept following him. He was getting to the point where Keith maybe was thinking this was a little bit creepy, but he would rather lose his rep of being Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man and making sure Lance got home.

It only took one wrong step and there was a crunch of leaves under his foot that echoed through the empty suburban street like a gunshot. He jumped up the light pole and held his breath as Lance turned around. He stood still for a moment before turning back around and continued walking.

It went on in silence for a little longer until Lance stopped suddenly and spun around again.

“I know someone is there, if you’re gonna mug me do it already.” The words were snapped out but there was a strong nervous hiccup in his tone.

Fuck.

What was he supposed to do? Lance knew someone was there and by the determined person he was he didn’t look like he was about to turn back around anytime soon. Plus Keith didn’t want to scare Lance even more than he already was.

Keith crashed his bottom lip between his teeth before moving out of the shadows and watched Lances face go from a stiff expression to a soft but confused one.

Lance's jaw dropped and he spluttered for a few seconds which in Keith’s mind was a little bit ironic considering that’s what he spent the majority of his time doing in Lance’s presence at school.

“I…” Lance blinked a few more times. His mouth opened and closed like he was contemplating on saying something but couldn’t quite get the words out. “I … What? Spider-Man?”

“I… Sorry if I scared you. I was just trying to…”

“Are you following me?”

“No!” Keith said taking astride forward. “I just… I wanted to make sure you are okay after Friday. It’s pretty traumatic to have a gun pointed at you. I would know.”

Lance nodded slowly, seeming like he was taking all the information in.

“Well thank you, I guess.” Lance shook his head and waved his hands. “I mean, no not _I just guess_, Thank you. Whole heartedly. But no offence, don't you have more important things to do then walk some high schooler home? Like saving people and stuff?”

“I’ve clocked in for the night. Besides, I’d feel far too guilty going to sleep not knowing if you’re alright or not.”

Wow. Spider-Man has more balls when it came to talking to Lance than Keith ever did.

“Oh,” Lance squeaked and Keith could see his face warming up even under the lack of light. Lance clicked out of whatever embarrassment he was feeling and switched to a more confident version of himself. The version Keith was more accustomed to.

“I’m totally going to complain about New York‘s finest hero walking me home.” His eyes lit up. “Unless you want to swing me home. Oh my god can you do that? Actually never mind I’m scared of falling to my death.” He twisted almost shyly, hands going behind his back and boyish smile on his face accompanied by pink dusted cheeks.

He looked so cute that Keith almost forgot he was in a suit.

“I think we’re better off sticking to the ground.” Lance laughed like he thought whatever he said was funny.

“Then come on Spidey.”

Lance spoke as he walked. It really shouldn’t have been that surprising to Keith that he would talk the whole way home, but he _was _surprised by how much Lance actually knew about Spider-Man. He asked him questions about certain bank robberies he’d stopped and how funny he thought it was when Spider-Man stuck a group of thieves together in his web and hung them upside down from the ceiling of the jewelry store and they tried to steal from.

Either way it was good for Keith because that meant he didn’t have to talk as much and he got to listen to Lance ramble on. That was until they reached a two story house with a white fence and garden of roses and magnolias.

“This is me,” Lance said and shuffled a little on the spot. Rolling on his heels to the tips of his toes. “I should be thanking you again for making sure I was okay.”

“It’s kind of my job.”

Lance smiled. “I doubt running around the city pays that well, but still, it means a lot to me. I was kind of freaking out when I was walking alone. But having Spider-Man to make sure I didn’t get my butt kicked was pretty cool.”

“You’re welcome.” He caught a glance at Lance’s watch and almost swore as he caught sight of the time. “I gotta go, but, uh, good night.”

Lance nodded before smiling and unlocking the gates latch before walking in. “Good night Spider-Man. Stay safe out there alright? New York would be pretty screwed without you.”

Keith’s whole body warmed up just from Lance's smile and sincerity.

Pidge was going to kill him.

* * *

Keith had planned on walking Lance home being a one time thing. But after another early finish to the night patrol and Pidge going offline, Keith was pretty quick to swing on by the corner shop to see if Lance was working.

He was, and it just so happened to be that when Keith arrived Lance was closing up the shop by himself.

He crawled down the wall of the alleyway and submerged himself into the light.

“Uh...hi,” Keith said because he’s a real smooth talker. Lance jumped, letting out a small yelp as he quickly faced his direction. Lance put his hand to his heart and let out a large exhale.

“Jeez dude,” he wheezed. “You nearly gave me a heart attack. Wait…” He looked shocked for a second and his brow scrunched up. “What are you doing here?”

What was he doing was good question. Why in his right mind did he think that this was a good idea? Was he really just that desperate to spend time with his crush that he had to use his superhero persona?

“I wanted to make sure that you got home safe again.”

A smile split onto his lips. “Oh!”

“You sound surprised.”

“I just assumed that last time was gonna be a one off or something.”

So did Keith but he’s got no self control.

“Would you rather I leave?” He asked.

“No!” He shouted, then blushed as he readjusted his volume. “No, I would actually really love the company.”

So thus began the walk and just like always Lance knew how to fill in the quiet gaps in between each step to make a comfortable conversation.

He started speaking about his day, which led to him speaking about school and his life around it, including his friends. He mainly spoke about Hunk and it was always of the highest regards. He spoke about the current article he was writing for the school newspaper and how he wanted to become a journalist.

Most of this was stuff that Keith already knew. But he soaked up it up like a sponge, enjoying the way that Lance’s enthusiasm shined when he spoke. Keith always liked that about him.

Another attractive attribute to Lance’s personality was his love for his family. He loved them so much and endlessly that words were never a necessity in understanding that. You could see it in the way he spoke about his siblings, how their childhood unfolded and how his parents smothered them with love, you could see the love with every story his shared. That same love came when he spoke about his parents, whether it be his mother’s cooking or his dad teaching him important life lessons that only a father and son could share.

Another part of him was a little concerned that Lance was so willing to share it all with a complete stranger dressed in spandex.

“Oh wow, I just realised that I have been rambling for about four minutes straight,” Lance chuckled out, although it sounded slightly self deprecating. “I’m sorry, you’re probably bored with all that. I’ve been told I talk a lot at that it’s a bit annoying. You probably don’t even care-”

“I don’t mind”, Keith cut in because he really hated that insecure look on Lance’s face. It did not belong there. "You can talk as much as you like. I like hearing you talk.” Saying the truth was much easier with a mask on.

He didn’t miss the way Lancers cheeks went red, but Keith was too distracted by the soft, shy smile that twisted his lips.

“I… Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Lance took a big breath before he continued to speak, shyness dissipating away instantly with his confident stride.

“So now that we’re walking buddies and I have unpacked my whole life story for you-" Keith chuckled at the phrasing, “does that mean I have the luxury of asking the one and only Spider-Man some questions?”

“Depends on what you’re asking.” Keith didn’t care how much he liked Lance, there was no way in hell he was giving up his secret.

“Obviously nothing too invasive. I just think it would be nice to get to know each other. So… So is you being Spider-Man I hereditary thing, like did something in the genes just go whacky whack?”

“I was definitely not born this way, trust me.”

“So what? Were you like a science experiment gone wrong? I guess experiment gone _right _would probably make more sense though. You’re super badass.”

“Freak accident. A story for another time.”

“I can accept that. Okay next question…” Lance pondered on his thoughts and then turned, giving him the once over. “I got to ask, what’s with the costume? Are you just trying to flex out on the rest of us being like some sort of Da Vinci statue?”

“Da Vinci didn’t make statues.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Other than hiding my identity it's pretty practical. Not really any room to get caught on anything while I'm swinging.”

“Like a cape. Totally would have looked dope but not really practical, huh?”

“I don’t think capes are in any sense practical.”

“I don’t know? Maybe you could use it as a parachute." Keith snorted up a laugh which Lance looked prideful at. “Okay next question, why the colour red?”

“Well why not?”

“Spiders aren’t typically red.”

“I think I would be more villianised if I were going around in a black suit, not really the friendliest look. Besides, I just like the colour red.”

“Then why blue?” He asked, pointing to the blue parts of his suit.

Keith remembered back to Pidge, smirking and saying ‘oh look, the blue matches Lance’s eyes’ as they designed the suit together.

Keith shrugged. “No reason.”

Lance accepted that answer with a nod before moving on. “Okay then, why the mask? You could totally bask in the glory of being a superhero, have the world know your name, get all the babes you want, so why hide yourself?”

“We both know that not everyone would take so kindly to me. Plus I’d probably be arrested for the things I’ve done so far. Some people are just not so accepting of what they don’t understand or can explain.”

And not many people had answers for how a spider could turn someone into what he was. Whatever that was.

“The main reason is that I don’t want to put the people around me in danger. As soon as people know my friends and family they instantly become a target. I have no doubt people would try to use that against me. I rather keep my secret than put everyone I know in danger.”

“Wait,” Lance said, holding his hands up, ”are you telling me that nobody in your life knows you’re Spider-Man?”

“The more people know the more dangerous it becomes,” he explained without truly answering the question. Lance still seemed to get the gist of it.

“That’s a heavy burden. Carrying that secret with you.”

“Better than putting my family in danger.”

“That’s fair,” Lance agreed. “I’d probably do the same thing.”

There was a certain amount of guilt that he felt in not telling a secret, especially when it came to Shiro. But hearing Lance agree with him, understanding his choice, it made it feel better. It was weird to be able to console with someone with his Spider-Man problems when Pidge was the only one who really knew the truth. Not that he didn’t love Pidge or value her opinions, but sometimes she didn’t quite agree with him and struggled to understand his perspective. It was nice knowing somebody agreed with his choice.

They continued to talk as they walked, mostly about nonsense since there was the obvious fact that Spider-Man couldn’t really talk about his private life. Despite it, Keith felt elated, happy and buzzed because the mask was somewhat of a saving grace. It gave him a new found confidence to be able to speak to Lance freely.

Keith could barely say a single sentence to Lance, but Spider-Man had the power to make Lance laugh.

When they reached Lance’s doorstep and he asked if he should expect Spider-Man to be his walking buddy more often, of course Keith took the bait and said yes.

He was most certainly digging his grave right now. A grave Pidge was going to push him in for being such an idiot. 


	2. Pretty Spider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back friends! happy to see you're back and ready for more spidey-klance

Gym class has always been a tricky subject for Keith to participate in at school. Back before the spider bite it flared up his asthma and lead him to become a wheezing laughing stock. Now he had to go easy otherwise he would start breaking Olympic records and draw suspicion to himself.

There was also the fact this year was the first time Lance was in his class and that was just a whole other level of torture. The guy was all lean muscle with broad shoulders and long legs that made the school's obligatory sport uniform look like it didn't fit him properly (when in fact, it fit him _too_ well).

"Keith, quit drooling. You're starting to look like one of those pathetic meatheads," Pidge said, nodding over to James's group who were flirting with the girls. It was like watching hungry sharks circle around fish who had rolled up their shorts to make them shorter.

At the head of the pack was none other than James Griffin. James and Keith had never gotten along. If anything, James would be considered a bully to Keith, Pidge and pretty much the rest of the school. But for some reason one of his favourite targets was Keith.

"Please never group me in with those dick heads."

"Then stop staring like a perv."

"I'm not staring like a perv. He just looks..." His eyes drifted to Lance who was laughing with two of his friends; Allura and Nyma. "Cute."

Pidge groaned, leaning her head backwards.

"At least they have the excuse of being hormonal, testosterone filled teenage boys who want sex. You're just a sad piner who wants to hold hands."

Keith only had time to frown at her before Mr Iverson blew his whistle, prompting everyone to gather around him for the debrief on today's lesson.

"Alright, today we will be doing our biannual fitness testing."

A good amount of the kids in the room grumbled and groaned in despair. The only ones who revelled in these activities were the jocks. It was like a game for them. They tried to beat one another and see who's the 'Alpha dog', or make fun of other kids who aren't so athletically inclined.

"It is the same as every other year. Fitness and strength testing at the start and beginning of the year so we can see if you have improved throughout the year. You should be seeing it as a good motivational tool to improve yourself. Not something to whine over. Now hurry up and warm up so we can get started. Three laps around the basketball court and then we'll stretch."

There was another chorus of grumbles and groans as the teens dispersed.

"Mr Iverson, I have PMS cramps, can I sit out?" Pidge asked the teacher who rolled his eyes.

"Light exercise has been proven to help alleviate menstrual cramps. No cashing out this time Miss. Holt."

Pidge grumbled to herself words even Keith couldn't hear as they walked off to begin their warm up jog.

"Well isn't this just great? Even the bloody gym teachers are evolving," Pidge muttered. Keith snickered as he copied her jogging pace around the basketball court. "Speaking of evolving, I am sure I don't need to explain the various reasons why you need to go easy on this. Just... Try not to out beat every single person in every activity."

"Yeah yeah, I'll drop out halfway through each of them. It's not worth the risk if I-"

"Are you excited to have another asthma attack again this year, Kogane?" A voice so annoying there was only one possible person that belong to spoke. "I mean come on," James chuckled, now running backwards in front of them. "Try not let all girls beat your sorry ass this year okay? You're making us boys look bad."

"Are you saying the girls can't be just as strong or fast as the boys?" A new voice broke in, also very distinctive but in an entirely different way. Allura had a strong English accent and a tone low but comforting. In other words it didn't make Keith want to tear his ears out like James' did.

She was probably the prettiest girl he'd ever seen (he didn't need to be straight to know that), but with that she could be terrifying. Like now, with her arms were crossed and her brow arched. Beside her, also looking not impressed by James' words was Nyma and Lance.

James chuckled and shrugged. "It's just a fact baby, all in the biology."

"I'm pretty sure you failed biology but whatever," Pidge added with a smirk, transferring over to Keith's face.

"Whatever, it's not like anyone can tell what the hell _you _are anyway," James spat at Pidge before turning around and jogging over to the safety of his fellow jocks.

Allura rolled her eyes with a shake of the head, making her long brown ponytail behind her swish. "I hate how that boy speaks and acts. Just because he's on the football team he thinks he's top shit. I really wish somebody would just put him in his place."

Keith and Pidge slowly turned to look at one another.

"I changed my mind," she started. "Time to beat his ass."

* * *

Speed was luckily one of the things that Keith didn't need to go all out in. Allura was the school's champion track runner and managed to easily wipe all the boys in 100 meter sprint.

The strength testing is where Keith decided his time was to shine.

"Okay, it is now time for the bar hanging test, since we don't have as many bars we do students, we'll do the girls first and the boys second," Mr. Iverson explained.

The bar hang was pretty much child abuse when it came to school physical education. It was simple enough. Quite literally just hanging on a bar and holding on for as long as possible. Obviously the longer you held on, the higher your score would be.

It wasn't unusual for it to be turned into a competition. Who could stay at on longest? Who was going to drop out first? It was all a game and the boys in James's group ate that shit up. It was a way to showcase their strength and show everyone in a public setting that they were stronger, more powerful than the rest of their peers. Both physically and on the social food chain.

Keith was already sweating and it had nothing to do with the impending task ahead. The cause of his fear at the moment was the fact that Lance was sitting next to him as they watched the girls hold themselves up. He cheered them all on smiling and yelling out encouragement.

Pidge held herself up for a solid five seconds before letting herself drop. She probably could've held much longer than that but of course she couldn't be fucked.

She walked over to them and sat down on the seat next to them.

"That was..." Lance trailed off. "Uh... Good job Pidge–"

She raised her hand up in dismissal. "Relax, McClain, save your niceness. I flunked it on purpose."

"On purpose?" He asked. "Why would you do that?"

"The whole point of this assessment is that at the end of the year we repeat it. The majority of our grade goes towards how much we've improved in each criteria. All I have to do at the end of the year is hold on for 10 seconds and I pretty much just scored myself a decent mark."

Keith watched Lance's eyes widen.

"That's-"

"Yeah, I know. Pure genius."

Lance laughed, eyes crinkling and shoulders shaking. "I would totally follow suit but pride is on the line with this one. I don't know how anyone is going to beat James at this. I've been in his class for the past two years and I'm yet to see anyone that can outlast him."

Keith glanced to Pidge who gave a wicked smile.

"Maybe today will be the day that somebody will beat him," she said.

Lance barked out a laugh. "Oh man, that is a sight that I would pay to see."

"Alright boys, you're up!" The teacher said as the last girl –Nyma– dropped after an impressive time. She was a gymnast and it was a time that Keith doubted most boys would be able to beat.

Keith and Lance approached the bar together, Keith making sure that James' position was close to his own. In fact, he didn't even have to worry because James wandered over with a smirk and stood beside Keith and under the metal bar.

"Don't think just because you build up some muscle over the summer break that you're going to have any chance of beating me, Kogane," he said, as Keith rubbed his hands against the material of his shirt for better grip.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you're a little threatened Griffin," Lance said with a quirked up brow. Keith smiled to himself as James scoffed.

"Yeah right."

"Everyone ready? I'm going to start the timer and on one I want you want to jump up and hold on for as long as you can," the teacher started as he fiddled with the stopwatch. "Alright, 3, 2, 1–"

They all jumped up on their space on the bar and held on. Keith looked at Pidge and smiled as she sent him a wicked thumbs up.

They say that this is a strength test, but really it only benefited a certain body type making it as rigged as the rest of the education system. Leaner, lighter bodies always did better than big, bulky guys, no matter how big their arms were. The more weight you had on you, the more difficult it was to hold yourself up. Which is why James had always been so good at this. He was lean and he could sprint across a field with light toes. Sure, he wasn't as buff as his other football friends, but the guy was still strong. Too bad he was nowhere near to being close as strong as Keith.

As predicted, the heaviest of guys dropped out earlier on. The bigger football players looked a little dejected about it but were happy to cheer on their fellow teammates.

Each minute went by and more people started to fall down. Eventually there was around five of them. Lance seemed to be going pretty well by his side, which wasn't really much of a surprise to Keith. Lance was pretty active himself. As well as being a talented writer, he was known to be one of the fastest swimmers on the school swim team. So obviously he had upper body strength galore.

Eventually, the remaining five turned to two with Lance finally dropping out. He looked up at Keith and grinned.

"Doing well buddy, don't be afraid to kick some ass," and with a wink he turned around to go collect his time and then sit down with Pidge, Allura and Nyma. 

"Final two!" The coach shouted out and the other peers cheered. Some whispering about their surprise of one of the finalists. Keith last year had just been that skinny nerdy kid with glasses and asthma which was painfully ironic and could barely lasted a minute hanging from the bars. Now he was sitting comfortably at the top two while James's arms were starting to tremble.

The teacher walked over, giving both boys a nod of the head in recognition. "Nice work boys, keep it up. Your form's looking good Mr. Kogane."

"Thanks sir."

The teacher nodded again and continued to walk off. Once out of earshot James spoke again.

"Don't get cocky," he sneered, adjusting his hands on the bar. "Just because you made it this far doesn't mean you're going to outlast me. I could do this all day."

"I wasn't really trying to win anything before, but since I'm here now I might as well try," Keith said.

"Don't push your luck. You're still a fucking nerd."

Keith rolled his eyes and looked out to Pidge who was enjoying this and apparently so were other people. James wasn't really that well liked, but most were too scared of him to show their distaste.

Pidge mouthed the words _'destroy him'_ and Keith fought back a grin. James' arms began to tremble a little more and Keith didn't miss the way he would glance over at him, wondering when he was going to drop. He was getting frustrated, and Keith wasn't going to let up this opportunity to piss him off.

Keith let go of one of the bars, using only one hand to hold himself up and used the other to casually scratched his cheek. The whole room gawked with wide eyes while Pidge looked like she was going to explode into hysterics. He hung there from one arm for a few more moments, yawned, then glanced back to James and he held himself up with two hands again.

"What the _shit_," James exhaled before looking back in front of him, seemingly trying to focus.

"Congratulations boys, you are now breaking the school record with your timing. Keep it up."

And wasn't that just the cherry on top? What a way to raise the stakes and make James damage his own pride even more when he lost.

Okay, so maybe it was cheating a little bit, but what damage could it be by beating the school bully at his own game? In fact, putting him in his place might even be beneficial to himself and the rest of the school. Maybe he'll stop being such an egotistical prick.

Plus, it wouldn't hurt to impress Lance a little. He looked excited, eyes sparkling and cheering loudly. Goddamn was he cute.

Being lost in his little Lance daydream must've taken up quite some time because before he knew it there was a squeak of shoes hitting the basketball court and he was the only one left hanging. His classmates cheered while James hunched over to catch his breath. Once he was done he looked up at Keith, eyes narrowed and livid as he wiped his sweaty brow.

"Better luck next time Griffin," Keith said as he dropped to his feet. "I mean, you wouldn't want to lose to a nerd again, right? You'll start making the football team look bad," he smirked before walking back to Pidge who is ready to high-five in to the next century.

"Dude, that was incredible! Oh my god you have to give me that workout resume and food plan diet Shiro has got you on!" Lance rambled, shaking Keith by the shoulders and making his heart pound more than hanging from the bar had done.

"Good work up there Keith," Allura grinned. "It's nice to see someone finally putting James Griffin in his place."

Who said using his powers for his own benefit was a bad thing?

* * *

"Now _that's _what I call using your powers for good," Pidge cackled, laughing so hard that she had to lean against the metal lockers. "Oh man, did you see his face? That's the best shit I've seen so far. You are my literal hero."

Keith chuckled and shook his head as he put his books away and got out his lunch.

"So what? Being Spider-Man wasn't enough?"

Pidge continued to laugh and wiped her eyes. "This just solidified it. And when you were just hanging with the one arm? Holy _shit _everyone lost it! And hey! Double whammy because you totally impressed Lance."

Keith perked his head. "I did?"

"Oh yeah, he was totally eating it up."

Keith smiled a silly grin to himself at the thought.

"Uh, oh, meathead 10 o'clock, Pidge muttered and they both turned to see James approaching them. The only time James had ever walked up to them was only to unload his issues by bullying the shit out of them. The amount of times James had shoved him into a locker was astronomical. He hadn't attempted since they'd been back at school. This was going to be interesting.

"Well if it isn't our favourite example of what it looks like to peak in high school," Pidge said but James was looking directly at Keith.

"Alright Kogane, I'm only going to ask this once but what the hell are you taking? Because there is no way you could've done that unless you are on something. So what is it? You on roids or something?"

Oh, _oh _this was going to be amusing.

"You think I'm taking steroids?" Keith laughed out. "My brother is a high ranking police officer, and you think I'm on drugs just so I could beat you from hanging on a bar?"

James shoved at his shoulders, taking Keith by surprise. "Don't patronise me, fucker! Last year you were just some skinny little bitch who could barely run 50 m without wheezing like my old man who's been smoking for 30 years," he shoved Keith shoulders again and that's when the crowd started to take notice. Eyes starting to glaze over in their direction. "So what the hell are you taking?"

He's furious, too furious for it to be just because of some stupid strength testing class.

"Sorry to disappoint, But I'm not doing anything. I've never even had a sip of alcohol and you think I'm doing something as serious as taking steroids?"

"Yeah dude, you're starting to sound crazy," Pidge said.

"I work my ass off to get to the point where I am," James snarled, shoving Keith another time until his back hit the locker. It felt oddly like old times. "I worked my whole life, people don't come back a completely different person from summer like that! You can't tell me that all you did was work out with your brother? Bullshit! I call _bullshit!_"

Keith felt the material of his shirt being scrunched up between James's hands and suddenly his senses were tingling like a red flag. He ducked in time before James threw the first fist. A few people made noises in surprise, especially as James used another fist to try and punch him in the jaw that Keith avoided again.

This was bad. Because sure, he could put James down as easy as breathing. But if James managed to punch on him there was no chance that he wasn't going to break his hand.

When Keith first started a Spider-Man gig and was still learning how to fight of course people were able to land punches on him. But he was quick to learn that punching him was like punching a brick wall. People had broken their hands, shattered them beyond repair more than he would like to think about. So that meant if James managed to punch him, he was going to break his hand and not be able to play football.

Sure, Keith could totally let him do that, break his hand, ruin his chances of being able to play with the team he loves and taking away his only chances of going to college because he couldn't get a scholarship, but Keith wasn't that person. He didn't care how this guy has given him hell since kindergarten. He didn't want to hurt him. Humiliate a bit, but not seriously injure him.

Keith dodged another punch and moved out of his path so that James' fist collided with the locker behind him. He turned to face Keith and charged at him like a roaring bull.

Crap. He really did piss him off.

Keith made a conscious effort to keep this normal. He didn't want to accidentally out himself or cause too much suspicion. Especially since kids are pulling out their phones. _Of course_ they pulled out their phones and instead of getting a teacher to save him.

"Stop moving out of the way and let me punch you!" James growled.

"Why the hell would I let you do that?" Keith exasperated as he ducked under James's arm and turned, now facing James' his back. He took the blind spot as an opportunity and pushed James into the locker, securing him with his hands behind his back. This way he couldn't move out of his grip. James thrashed, trying to free himself. But whether he knew it or not he was much safer here than when he was trying to swing hits.

"Calm down James, what has gotten into you?"

"Fuck off!" James snapped.

"Alright what's going on here!" A sea of people parted as Mr Lee walked down the corridor, Lance trailing behind him. Of course he was the one who got the teacher. He was the only person with common decency at this school.

"You two," Mr. Lee started, grabbing them both by the colour of their shirts, "are coming with me."

* * *

"I don't get why I'm getting the silent treatment," Keith said during an impressively awkward drive home from school after spending a good half an hour sitting in the principal's office. "You saw the videos, I never even hit him. He was the one who came after _me_."

The evidence of the recordings showed none of it was Keith's fault, there wasn't even a valid reason for James to attack him. He got off free while James had a three day suspension.

Shiro sighed. "It's not just the fight Keith."

"What do you mean?"

"I _mean _you're acting off. You've been coming home late and your grades are starting to slip a little. I got a call from one of your teachers saying that you fell asleep in class. _In class _Keith!"

"I know, I know. It's just"-"

"It's just _what_?" Shiro's sighed, obviously trying to not unleash his bottled up worries and concerns. "You would tell me if you're going through something, right?" The expression on his face was hurt, like he knew Keith was hiding something and was upset because Keith was keeping it from him anyway.

"Of course I would," he lied.

Shiro exhaled a breath. "Okay, I just worry about you. You've been through some real hard stuff in your life and I just don't want you going off the tracks."

"I won't. I promise." He wanted to promise but he wasn't even entirely sure if it was one he could keep. "I'm sorry for worrying you. I'll work harder." 

At least that one was the truth.

* * *

The tension was instantly recognised as Keith walked into the newspaper room the next day. JJ had his arms crossed and Lance stood in front of him with a scowl. In between the two was a girl, most likely a freshman who looked to be on the verge of tears.

"You said at the beginning of the year that you would allow art and comics!" Lance exasperated, arms going in the air.

"If you remember what I said correctly, you would remember I stated _specifically _it had to be suited under the guidelines of the school and what was appropriate," JJ explained, not looking affected by Lance's obvious aggravation to the situation.

"How does her drawing break any sort of guideline? Look at it! It's incredible and deserves to be seen. What's the big deal of having a drawing of Spider-Man-"

"What's the _problem!_" JJ scoffed. "How is having fanart of a vigilante in our school newspaper in anyway following the guidelines?"

Oh, so it was one of _those _debates...

Keith was more than aware of the very real debate of whether Spider-Man was good or a menace. People didn't know what to think about him, didn't want to trust what they didn't know. Others obviously were much more accepting and even grateful.

People like Lance.

"How could you say that? He's saved people not killed them-"

"I know you have your opinion after your own situation," Keith noticed Lance's hands clench. "But there is no doubt that such a person or _thing _could ever considered valued a _hero_ when all they do is hide under a mask like a coward."

"So what if he doesn't show his face? Maybe there's reasons we don't know. Who _cares _if he doesn't? He saved people, he saved _me_ and that should be celebrated, not criminalised. You won't be calling him that one day when it's your ass he's saving."

"Unlike some people I don't _need _saving." Keith saw the cockiness in JJ's eyes after speaking those words. Especially when Lance went silent. Even Keith knew that was a low blow.

Instead of speaking up, Lance turned to the girl holding the piece of paper close to her chest.

"Come on Lila, let's go make you an Instagram account so you can show people your drawing instead of putting it in some pretentious school newspaper," he said loud enough for JJ to hear, who just rolled his eyes before moving back to his pile of papers to sort through.

Once the commotion had taken a second to dial down, Keith walked over to Lance who was with Lila, both looking at her phone screen.

"What was that all about?" Keith asked, mainly looking at Lance since he didn't really know the girl too well. She was just another freshman really.

Lance groaned and shook his head. You could really tell when Lance was pissed about something because you could see the anger in the way his brows pinched together and how he closed his body language. Tightened himself by crossing his arms and legs and pursing his lips.

"We are going through the crisis of restrictive authority." He raised a hand to gesture to the freshman. "Lila here has done some amazing art and it was rejected by JJ because he is a backwards and opinionated douche who won't let her publish it as a part of our arts section."

Keith nodded along and glanced to Lila.

"You drew Spider-Man?" Keith asked, internally surprised. It wasn't often that he got positive feedback from what he did on the media. Let alone fanart. As JJ said, people thought of him as a menace, an annoying bug.

Most people that seemed to favour him were younger. Kids who dreamed of being a superhero and teenagers who idolised the thought of change. But in forms of art, graffiti was one thing he sometimes saw on the side of alleyways but he had yet to see a drawing on a piece of paper.

Lila nodded still holding the sheet close to her body, probably fearing another round of rejection.

"Show him," Lance insisted with a smile. "Don't be afraid to show your talent just because of JJ."

Lila nodded again and extended the piece of paper out to Keith. Keith was a little nervous to say the least as he turned the paper over and looked.

It was traditionally drawn picture of Spider-Man swinging through New York. It looked like it could've been pencil, super smooth and vibrant. Lance was right, it really was incredible and obviously had taken many hours out of her day to complete. It made it even more overwhelming knowing that someone was willing to take time out of their day to draw Spider-Man despite everyone being against him.

"It's incredible," Keith breathed out. "Really though, wow." He took a second longer to look at it before giving it back to Lila who had pink cheeks and her shoulders raised to her ears.

"Thank you," she said, trying to hold back a smile.

Lance put his hands on his hips with a proud expression.

"See? I told you it is too good for the newspaper. It's such a small community and you need to broaden your horizon. Instagram could totally do that. Maybe even Twitter! Think _big _Lila, and who knows," Lance grinned in a way that had both Lila and Keith swooning, "maybe this way Spider-Man might actually get to see it."

Her eyes twinkled at the thought and she looked back down at her art piece.

"You really think Spider-Man might actually see it?"

Lance shrugged. "Who knows? But you sure as hell have a better chance that way."

Lila's smile brightened to her teeth showed. "I'm definitely going to make that account. Thanks for believing in me Lance."

Lance's endless kindness was another thing that drove Keith absolutely crazy with his never ending crush. His heart was made of literal gold and he could make anyone feel special with just a few words of true belief. He made others believe in themselves and that truly was a gift that not many people had the pleasure of giving. It was probably what made Keith notice Lance (other than he is incredibly handsome face and broad shoulders). Despite being a nerdy Asian kid with glasses and asthma rendering useless and a target in both dodgeball and in school hallways, Lance was always nice to him. Always spoke to him like he was more.

"Hey man," Lance started as they sat down in the usual spot. "How are you going after that thing with James?"

Ever since Keith had been walking Lance home as Spider-Man had found it easier to keep conversation from awkward territory as Keith. It's still didn't make his heart pound any lighter.

"I'm fine. He wasn't really able to land I hit on me. And I didn't really want to hit him." The last thing he wanted to do was hospitalise anyone a school. "Thank you for getting Mr Lee by the way."

Lance waved his hand in dismissal. "No problem, James was acting like a crazy person and I really didn't want him do punch you in your pretty boy face."

Keith couldn't even get a word out as his face and whole body went red. It wasn't much, but comments like that really did take Keith back a few notches when it came to talking to Lance. His jaw dropped and moved up and down and attempt to say something but Lance just chuckled a little to himself before turning his attention back to the front of the room as JJ commenced their meeting.

Keith couldn't get his heart stopped pounding for the whole of that torturous half an hour. And he certainly couldn't get rid of the smile on his face as he walked home.

* * *

It was ridiculous at how fast walking Lance home after work had become a part of his Spider-Man routine. So when that routine got slightly obscured it was jarring.

It wasn't every day that you're swinging through the city and you spot a young girl sitting by the Times Square Fountain by herself.

She had explained that she had lost her mother while crossing the street in the big crowd. Pidge had laughed and told him he was on babysitting duty as Spider-Man held hands with a girl who couldn't have been older than four years old. They walked through the city looking for her mother. It hadn't taken long, probably having something to do with the man in the bright red suit with a tiny child in a tutu and princess crown. But the mother had thanked him endlessly and tried to give him money as a thank you.

Pidge like the devil on his shoulder had said into the communication device to take it, but of course he wasn't going to take a distraught mother's kindness for granted.

He refused the money but accepted to take photos because the girl named Kelly really wanted a memory of her time with Spider-Man.

That had made a dent in Keith's time patrolling the city. Which meant he was later than usual to walking with Lance. Eventually when he got rid of Pidge he quickly made his way to the shop to see Lance sitting outside, slurping a slushy while scrolling through his phone.

As Keith dropped in front of him he raised his head and smiled.

"Hey Spidey, I thought you weren't coming for a second," he started as he stood, wiping the dust off the back of his jeans.

"Sorry I was-" Lance cut him off with a laugh.

"Dude, I wasn't serious. You're a busy guy. I'm just some teenager you saved. You don't have to explain anything to me."

Except he wasn't just _some teenager_, he was _Lance._

"Right," Keith nodded.

"Now I totally don't want to pry, but tell me, were you kicking ass?"

Keith rolled his eyes playfully but knew that Lance wouldn't be able to see it. "More like playing mother duck. A little girl lost her mother."

"Awe," Lance cooed. "That's adorable."

"It was different from my usual, that's for sure," he said.

"I can imagine. But babysitting is in an easy feat, I would know. I babysit my niece and nephew all the time."

"Nadia and Sylvio, right?"

Lance smiled; impressed. "Wow, you actually do listen to me. I thought you would think I'm just some dumb kid. You're like what? Thirty or something?"

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Keith teased. "I never told you my age."

Lance scoffed. "Well, I take a guess from the fact you don't understand the majority of my memes as a factor."

"You think I'm thirty because I don't understand your jokes?"

"I'm trying to work with what I've got. I don't really get to paint a picture of what you're like Spidey. Are you confirming or denying my hypothesis?"

Keith looked ahead as he continued walking.

"No comment."

"Such a mystery, so enigmatic," Lance sighed melodramatically, letting him know he was only joking. He knew Spider-Man's reasons. "Hey, can I ask you something?" The way Lance's tone changed made Keith stiffen at the possibilities.

"Go ahead."

Lance took a breath. "I know you're aware that people aren't really in favour of what you do. How do you..." He paused trying to find the right words. "How do you keep going when people talk so much smack? Like, how do you think they deserve someone like you when they can't even accept you? Doesn't it piss you off that you're endangering your own life for people who hate you?"

Keith knew where this was coming from. It came directly in response to JJ and him rejecting showcasing Lila's drawing.

"Well," Keith started, feeling his hands sweat under suit. "Sure, it's frustrating when you're trying to do good and everyone doesn't think you're genuine. That they think you're some sort of criminal. But I mean, it doesn't really surprise me. Some guy in red spandex swinging around the city sounds kind of like some sort of maniac," Keith laughed lightly. "I know when I first had that idea, I thought it was crazy too. It was pretty insane, it _is _pretty insane. It's something nobody has done before. But I want to make a difference. My..." Keith sucked in a breath as he thought over his parent's words. "Some important people always told me to use my given gifts for the greater good. I've been given something, something that I can do good with. Maybe some people don't like it, some people are just scared of what I am. But it's not going to stop me from helping them, even if they don't want my help. My goal is to make New York a safer place. I just have to make them believe that I can do it."

Lance nodded along and then shook his head at the end. "Wow, you're really incredible, huh? Like, you really do this for no glory? You're the real deal."

It was a compliment, but he didn't know how his body and mind was going to last if Lance kept complimenting him all day both as Spider-Man and his plain old self.

"Just because I am strong and can climb walls doesn't mean I'm the only one who can make a difference," Keith said, thinking back to Lance helping Lila. "From what I know of you, I know you're a kind and caring person who gives more than he receives. You don't need a mask or a suit to be amazing. I bet everyone around you knows that too."

Lance smiled and let out a laugh. "Amazing," he repeated in a way that meant he thought otherwise. "Thank you. Too bad the person I _want_ to think that doesn't think so."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Keith asked and watched Lance bite his lip.

"I mean... Well, l it's just-" he cut himself with a sigh. "Do you really want to hear about my teenage angst? It might bore you to death."

"We've got time to spare, I don't mind."

"Okay, well..." Lance wringed his hands and took a deep breath. "So there is this _person_ that I may or may not have a crush on and have liked for a while."

And there's goes Keith's heart. Disappointment started to crack in his chest as Lance continued to speak.

"And this person is impossible to read. Like, yeah, super quiet with me and don't really talk much but whenever they're with their friends they to be so more... Open. I can't really seem guess if this person even likes being around me, you know? Maybe I'm just super annoying to them and they're too nice to tell me..." His face looked down trodden as he thought over that possibility. "I just don't think they like me the same way I like them."

"I know that feeling," Keith spoke out quietly, trying to keep his tone even not letting his disappointment shine through. They walked in silence a few more moments before Keith could gather his thoughts to speak. "But I do know that you're a good person. You're funny and kind and really, if they don't like you it's their loss."

"If I didn't know better I know that you were thirty I would think that you were hitting on me," Lance teased despite the sadness in his eyes. "I guess I just wish I knew what they were thinking. Like, do I even have a chance with this person?"

Keith noticed that Lance wasn't using any pronouns, which made Keith's head bubble with the possibility of it being either a boy or a girl. Everyone knew Lance was bisexual and was quite open about it. Keith already been crushing on Lance for a while before he came out. When he first announced he was into both girls and boys, it filled him with hope because the possibility seemed so much closer to reality, but it also made it more painful because he knew it would still never happen. Just because he was a boy didn't mean shit. 

"I guess the only thing that you can do is be honest with them." Keith was such a goddamn hypocrite. "They... They probably deserve to know how you feel. And you deserve to know that you did everything you could do respect your feelings."

He could practically hear Pidge screaming in his ear telling him what a hypocrite he was. A cowardly hypocrite.

"How do I do that without ruining my friendship with them?"

A friend. His mind instantly went to Allura or Nyma. He's friends with both of them and they're both so sweet and pretty.

"Maybe just... Ask them to hang out. On the weekend or something. If someone likes you back they will probably want to spend as much time with you as you them."

Lance considered it. "You're such a wise old man. I bet you're a real killer in the dating scene."

Lance had no idea how wrong he was. The irony was actually kind of hilarious.

"I'm going to take your advice," Lance said with a little more confidence, straightening his spine and looking ahead like he was on a mission. "Ask them to hang out this weekend and see how it goes." He stopped outside the familiar gate which led to his house. "Wish me luck Spidey. I'll update you on my mess or lack of a love life next time."

Another reason why Keith loved his goddamn mask. There was no way for Lance to see the heartbreak on his face as he walked away.

"Also," he paused as he touched the gate and unlocked the latch, "-you should really think about getting yourself social media. It'll be a great way to get to interact with your fans. I'll be expecting a follow request," he added with a wink before leaving Keith with the scent of roses and magnolias in his nostrils.

* * * 

"You look terrible," Pidge said as she sat down opposite Keith as they ate their lunch.

And Keith was really feeling it. He was wallowing in his own self pity and exhaustion from his lack of sleep. How could he sleep when his crush had just squished his heart into a sad, little ball?

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"I'm going to die alone."

"O...Kay?" Pidge said raising a brown. "Elaborate?"

"I like Lance."

"No shit Sherlock. So?

"He's never going to like me back."

"So this is why you're having your little depressive episode? Because of Lance?"

"It's just, I don't know? I just feel shit because he's never going to feel the same way and I feel dumb for feeling the way I do and how long I've felt it and I know he likes someone and-"

Pidge perked up. "How do you know that?"

Keith sucked in a breath as he knew his fate. "I'm about to tell you something that's going to make you very, very mad."

"Oh God, what the hell did you do this time?"

"I've been... Walking Lance home from work." Pidge brows knitted together, obviously not getting the connection. "As Spider-Man," he added.

Pidge sighed, leaning back on her chair for a moment as she took a long, controlled breath. "I know."

Keith spluttered on his words for a moment before anything would come out. "You _knew_?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I knew, idiot. There's a function in your suit to let me know when you're online. I noticed you were taking so long to get home. At first I thought you were just going out for a casual nightly swing but then I listened in on the headpiece and realised who you were with pretty quickly." She narrowed her eyes. "You didn't tell him though, did you?"

"Of course I didn't tell him!" Keith hissed under his breath. "I'm not that stupid."

"You're stupid to be getting as close as you have been," Pidge reminded him which made Keith flinch. "I'm not going to lie, I was really pissed at first. Especially since you hadn't told me." Keith felt squeamish with guilt. "But I can understand it. You just wanted to make sure he was safe and that he wasn't hurt. Whatever you're doing must be helping because Hunk said he was barely having any nightmares anymore."

Keith exhaled.

"And you're so lucky that I put a voice disguise function inn that suit otherwise Lance would've picked up your stupid ass bitch voice from a mile away."

Keith let out a husky laugh and rubbed his eyes. The guilt free from his shoulders gave him more energy. But still not enough to want to get through the day.

"Thanks Pidge."

"It's whatever. But I still don't get why you're upset about Lance all the sudden."

Keith sighed, now back to reality of where his heart was.

"Lance told Spider-Man that he liked someone."

Pidge scrunched up her face. "So?"

"Well Spider-Man was thinking of Lance's happiness and told him to go for it. Ask them out or at least tell them his feelings."

"Oh god you're such a hypocrite," she groaned.

"Yeah... I know." Keith looked back to his friend. "I'm glad I don't have to hide it from you anymore though, the whole thing with Lance."

She shrugged. "It is what it is, it's stupid, but it is. Being Spider-Man is your thing. You do what you feel is right, just..." She looked sad all of a sudden, concerned. "Just make sure you don't get yourself hurt."

"I'm practically bullet-proof," Keith laughed. "You don't have to worry about me."

Pidge rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean _that _kind of hurt Keith."

That sinking feeling in Keith's gut reappeared. "I'll try my best."

Pidge gave him a smile and Keith knew deep down even though she was a hard bitch she was also a very caring bitch who really did care for his well-being.

The bell rang and it took them a moment to snap out of the conversation back into the real world.

They stood up and reluctantly followed the swarm of people out of the cafeteria and into the hallways, making their way to their lockers on reflex. It was normal, mundane part of their day.

What he hadn't expected to see Lance standing by his locker. It was both a heart wrenching and heart skipping experience. He was on his phone, looking like he was waiting for something. He looked up and his eyes bright and as he waved at them both.

Pidge put a hand on his shoulder. "Breathe Keith," she whispered and reminded him that he hadn't taken a breath and a good five seconds.

His exhale was shaky at best and his knees wobbled like they always did whenever Lance was nearby.

As they approached Lance was quick to pull something out of his back pocket. He extended it towards him. Keith's eyes picked up on the minuscule shake of the paper and the twitch in his smile

Nerves?

"Do I have an offer for you," Lance said, shaking the two pieces of shiny paper. "You know how our school paper does a movie review each month? Well this month it's my turn and I'm supposed to be reviewing The Summer Party and I was hoping you would come with me to see it!" He didn't seem nervous when he spoke. He always spoke so confidently, loud and clear for everyone to hear.

Maybe he was wrong about him being nervous.

He watched Lance's face dim slightly as Keith obviously hesitated.

He couldn't help it, he was just confused. Wasn't Lance supposed to be hanging out with his crush? This would've been the perfect opportunity since the person writing the review always get two free tickets. Why wouldn't he take this chance to ask them? Why him? Was it because they both worked on the paper together? Or could it be...

"You would not believe it! Keith has been telling me about wanting to see that movie for _months_!" Pidge told Lance while Keith had his mental breakdown. It was far from the truth, in fact the movie kinda looked dumb in Keith's opinion, but there was no way he was turning this opportunity down.

Lance's blue eyes widened along with his smile. "Really?"

"Of course!" She said patting his shoulder and hope to bring him out of his daydream and from staring so intently at Lance's face. "Keith! Tell Lance how much you want to see this movie."

"Uh... yeah," he floundered before nodding his head rapidly. "Yes! Yeah I really want to see this movie."

Lance grinned and even laughed a little. Pidge had to pinch his arm to stop him from looking like an absolute idiot for staring at him like he was the sun in the sky after a long winter.

"Awesome! So you're free this weekend?"

"Of course Keith is free this weekend!" Pidge insisted for him and Keith continued to nod.

"Sweet, I'll text you the details later."

Keith nodded.

"Cool, see you at our meeting!" With that he skipped off with a spring in his step in the direction he needed to go.

Robotically Keith turned to face his friend.

"Wow, didn't see that one coming," she snickered.

"I am hanging out with Lance this weekend."

"I know, I was there I heard the whole thing. In fact, I did the majority of the talking-"

"I am hanging out with Lance McClain _alone _this weekend."

"I mean with around 20 to 30 other people in the room but sure go off."

Keith and what the smile off his face and that's where it stayed for the rest of the day.

Keith was going to hang out with Lance this weekend.

Holy shit.

* * *

That smile had yet to disappear and by the time Keith got home from school. He was surprised to see Shiro, apron on and burning the shit out of some unrecognisable piece of meat. The scent of charcoal wafted through the kitchen.

Still, it hadn't been enough to dampen Keith's mood or falter his smile.

Shiro seemed amused by his pep.

"Good day at school?" Keith hummed his answer as affirmative. "I can see it by looking at your face. Something good happen?"

"Lance asked me to hang out this weekend."

Shiro dropped the pan he had been cooking with a loud clutter. He ignored it as he spun to face him.

"Lance? As in Lance McClain? Your _crush_?" The look on his face was priceless. Eyes wide and lips parted but still grinning. "Is it a date?"

This is where Keith's smile turned a little sluggish. "He didn't say the word _date_, or made it seem like he was asking me out."

That was right, just because Lance said he was going to ask his crush to hang out this weekend didn't mean it was him, maybe his crush was busy and Keith was the next option? Or he was spending Sunday with them?

"It doesn't hurt to ask, you might be surprised by the answer." He turned back to his food preparation and muttered something under his breath. He then turned back to Keith with a sheepish smile. "How do you feel about going to get take out celebrate?"

"It's not a date, so there is nothing really to celebrate. But we are definitely not eating that since it's no longer edible and safe for human consumption-"

_"Hey_!"

* * *

Keith has had people point guns at his face, been chased by police, jumped off skyscrapers and ridden on the top of moving cars like it was a motherfucking skateboard but never before had he sweated bullets like he was now.

It had taken him way too long to get ready because he wasn't sure what to wear. It wasn't explicitly said to be a date, in fact it was more like a school project but that still was no less daunting. He wanted to look nice. To look cool. But also not to look like he had spent the past hour and a half staring his wardrobe wondering what the hell to wear.

He was lucky Shiro was letting him take his car for the day otherwise he would've been horribly late. He was meeting Lance at the cinema 15 minutes before the movie started so they could get food and good seats and he was already pushing the time.

Seats.

He's going to be sitting next to Lance in a cinema.

"Good luck on your date!" Shiro called out as Keith grabbed the keys and rushed for the door.

"Not a date," he reminded his brother and himself.

Not a date. Don't get your hopes up. Lance already liked somebody and that somebody sure as hell wasn't him.

"Sure it isn't," Shiro teased. "Have fun, and make sure you're home by dinner."

"Yep," he said as he tied his shoelaces.

"I'm cooking tonight, trying a new recipe."

"On the other hand, I don't think I'm gonna be home-"

"Keith," Shiro growled in warning.

"Go to go! Don't wanna be late" He kicked the rest of his feet down into his shoe and opened the door, just before he closed it he poked his head through. "Thanks for letting me borrow your car."

"What good brothers are for. Now for some brotherly advice for your first date-"

"Bye Shiro!" He ran before he could ever think of finishing that sentence.

* * *

On arriving to the cinema he instantly spotted Lance. He wore his signature jacket that honestly had no right on looking so good on him and light wash jeans. Keith walked over and the smile that came across his face had his palms clammy. They were practically waterfalls, if he wasn't careful he was going to get dehydrated.

He met Keith halfway and bounced on his toes as he spoke.

"Hey man! Wanna go lineup and get some food? Cinema experience is never complete without snacks."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"Sweet! I'm feeling popcorn and a coke. Want to share the popcorn?"

Keith response was his brain because his brain short-circuited. He nodded.

"Awesome!" He leaned in to Keith's with a mischievous glint in his eyes. The lack of space between them had him tense, especially when his next words were lowered and spoken next to his ear. "And keep it on the down low, I have like, ten Hersheys bars in my jacket pocket. So we have those to munch on as well."

So that was it. Keith probably wasn't going to make it through this movie alive. No more Keith and no more Spider-man and it was all Lance McClain's fault.

It got even worse when after ordering popcorn and drinks Lance proceeded to pull out his wallet.

"You're not... Paying for me, are you?" Keith asked in horror as Lance fished out the cash. He waved his hand, not even looking at him.

"Don't sweat it! I asked you to hang out with me so I didn't have to be that sad person alone at the movies. If anything, you're doing me a solid. It's my treat."

"But-"

"_Ba-ba-da!_ But _nothing_! If you really want to make up for it you can pay next time."

Hold up.

Hold the _fuck _up!

Next time?

"Next time?"

He noticed the pink tint to Lance's cheeks as he handed Keith the bucket of popcorn. "Yeah, unless you don't want to-"

"No," he said more controlled than ever before. "I'll pay next time."

Lance's grin was worth the heat rushing to his cheeks.

They got good seats according to Lance. Near the middle and high enough that they didn't have to strain their necks. Apparently that was thing, 'the perfect seats' and they had them. Keith didn't get it, but Lance seemed enthusiastic about it so he played along.

Lance didn't hesitate to pull up the armrest between them so they could fit the popcorn in the middle of them both. Keith made a conscious effort to make sure they didn't both grab popcorn at the same time because that would lead to their hands touching and Keith didn't want to make a fool of himself.

Keith wasn't sure how the movie went. He'd been distracted by freaking out over how close they were and how he didn't want to breathe too loudly. Maybe Lance was annoyed by loud breathers? He didn't want to be annoying.

"So," Lance started as they left the cinema. "Did you like the movie?"

"It was good," he said to be safe.

"Agree, I don't think I've ever heard you laugh so much," Lance grinned. He's pretty sure he only laughed the hardest when Lance was laughing because his laugh was just that infectious.

"It was funny," Keith insisted with a shrug.

"I guess I just assumed you would be more of an action genre kind of guy."

Keith's life was like an action movie, so really, he probably enjoyed anything else. Although he wouldn't lie and say that he had got some pretty sick moves from watching outrageous action films.

Plus, any movie he was watching with Lance was automatically going to be a good time, no matter how terrible or brilliant it was.

"I was a little scared you were going to be bored," Lance admitted.

"I had a good time."

Lance smiled and looked at his feet. It was unlike him to not smile directly at someone and blast them with its brilliance. This one was shy and sweet and caused bubbles to fizzle and pop inside his chest.

"Yeah, I had a good time too." They both stopped and smiled at each other before Lance shook his head out of the moment and looked at his watch.

"Oh, uh, I really have to get going or I'm going to miss the bus home," he said with a pout as he covered the watch with his jacket once again. "I guess I'll see you Monday then?"

"I could drive you home," Keith offered, making Lance perk up.

"You have your license?" He asked sounding surprised.

"Yeah, Shiro was pretty finicky about it. I got it as soon as I could." He paused as he noticed Lance's hesitation. "It's no problem really, I just thought you'd like the ride-"

"I would love a ride," Lance said around a grin. He always seemed to be smiling. His step got a little peppier as they walked towards the doors that lead to the car park and Keith couldn't find himself complaining either. He just scored times extra time with Lance after all.

Despite how scared he had been to begin with, he had never felt so comfortable as himself with Lance. He felt as Spider-Man that he could be more himself, the person who didn't really care about what other people thought and said whatever the hell he wanted. It was just when he was with Lance he has lost all his confidence and shrivelled up into a socially awkward ball. But spending more time with him actually allowed him to show his personality and let it shine through. He was having a great time, even if they were just hanging out as friends, it didn't really even matter.

The only problem was it did allow him to grow his feelings like a weed.

It was horrifying to let happen, to let his crush grow higher and higher above the ground, making the false hope so much more painful, but so addictive at the same time.

Keith turned the engine on and as he waited for an opening to leave the car park he turned to Lance.

"Feel free to put on your music," he said. "Just use the cord there."

"He tells me to pick the music. I'm not sure if he knows this but handing me his iPod is like handing me the window to his soul," Lance said effortlessly. It sounded like a quote that he doesn't recognise. Lance's eyes widened and his mouth dropped. "Don't tell me you don't know where that's from?"

"Should I?"

Lance looked stumped. His mouth opened and closed like you had so much to say at once but didn't know where to begin. "_Keith_! You can't tell me you haven't read_ Simon vs The Homosapiens Agenda?_" He shrilled, sounding offended.

Keith gave him a blank look and Lance took that as enough of an answer.

"_Love Simon_?" The blank look continued and Lance laughed. "Dude! You're gay and you haven't read the book or seen the movie? It's a masterpiece!" His pitch raised an octave and his hands flailed around. It was a perfect example of how Lance reacted when he was passionate about something. Keith couldn't help but smile.

He pointed to Keith as he reversed out the parking spot and into traffic. "I am lending you that book. And you're going to read it and you're going to love it."

"Why does that sound like a threat?" Keith chuckled.

"Because it is! If you don't like it, then I'm afraid we can associate."

"Is that how it works?" He teased. Their banter flowed so smoothly when Keith actually had the guts to speak more than one word to him.

"_Yes_!" He shouted. "I am bringing it in on Monday for you. So get ready to have your socks rocked."

His phrasing and wording was just way too adorable for his own good.

"So if Keith Kogane doesn't read _Simon Versus the Homo Sapiens Agenda_, what does he read?"

Keith hummed. He wasn't a huge reader. But he knew Lance ate that shit up because he loved reading just as he is much as he loved writing.

"I don't know if I really have a favourite. I read what everyone else is reading at that time. Or something that is becoming a movie and I want to read it before it comes out."

"Fair enough, just get ready for Simon to become your new favourite book."

"You really like that book."

"I finished it in a day and I read it about seven more times since then. I think it's safe to say that I would marry that book."

Keith was currently stuck behind traffic as Lance flicked through his song choices. Keith forgot how long it took driving in New York City when for the past couple of months he had been dodging the traffic (literally). He wasn't too worried about it because more traffic meant more time with Lance and time with him was always worth it, no matter how many traffic lights he had to stop at.

There was a moment of silence where Keith felt comfortable. It was probably the first time it felt that way because usually in silence with Lance it was awkward and Keith felt like he was wasting precious time of talking to him (or listening to Lance since most of the time Keith was too nervous to initiate conversation).

This moment Lance was the one who was quiet. He looked outside the window and up at the buildings.

Keith wondered if he was trying to spot and see if Spider-Man was out on patrol.

"So this is the window of your soul?" Keith asked as an upbeat song came through the speakers of his junky car.

Lance grinned, looking Keith's way.

"Beyoncé is the window to everybody's soul."

Conversation flowed from there. Chat about Hunk and Pidge's robotics club assignment, groaning about homework and laughing about memories from school and making fun of JJ.

Even though Lance controlled most of the conversation and its direction Keith found himself contributing more. He liked talking to Lance. He liked talking to him much more than being too scared to speak to him. He liked it so much that when he turned into Lance's street he couldn't believe how fast time has gone.

It seemed Lance also was surprised how quickly time went because he blinked a couple of times, looked around and realised the car had stopped.

"Oh... we're here."

"Yep."

"Thanks for driving me home."

"No problem."

Keith began to un-buckle from the seat belt and follow Lance much to his surprise.

"You're walking me to my door?" He asked, looking mystified.

"Would you rather I not?" Keith asked, ready to backtrack and put seat belt back on. Had he just made it weird? Is that not the right thing to do? He hadn't even thought about it he just thought it was the right thing to do...

Lance pressed his lips together, like he was trying to force himself not to smile. "I'm not going to stop you from walking me to my door," he chimed and moved to get out of the car.

Keith took that as his moment to take a steady breath and relax, thankful that he hadn't made it weird. He got out of the car and followed Lance to the gate, it was the first time he had gone past this point since he usually kept his distance. He could appreciate the flowers better in here.

It was kind of in the same way that Keith could appreciate Lance better without his suit and the title of Spider-Man.

Lance reached his doormat and spun around to face Keith. The grin on his face was bigger this time and seemingly brighter if that was even possible.

"Thanks again for coming with me tonight and then driving me home..."

Keith rubbed his shoulder. "It's really not a big deal. Thanks for giving me extra ticket."

"It's really no big deal," Lance said throwing his own words back at him. "Look, I'm pretty serious about that. I've been wanting to hang out with you without the presence of JJ because just being in his vicinity raises my blood pressure. You see, the thing is..."

Something in Keith's stomach dropped, sweat now starting to pour at every pore of the body.

"I kinda used the ticket as an excuse to hang out with you." Keith paused, assuming Lance would take back his words considering how they sounded leaving his mouth. Thing was he didn't take it back. He kept going.

"And I don't know if I'm totally making a fool out of myself right now, but I think you're like..." He smiled, sheepish and cheeks definitely red. "I don't know? You're cool. And I like hanging out with you."

Keith blanked out for a moment as Lance continued to ramble.

Why was he talking to Keith like he had something to confess? Like he was going to reenact one of Keith's daydreams right before him.

_It doesn't hurt to ask, you might be surprised by the answer._

"I mean, it's cool if you don't see me that way and everything. We can still be friends and pretend it never-"

"Is this a date?" Keith blurted out, cutting Lance off from his own sentence.

For once in his life Lance look speechless, mouth opening and closing for a solid moment like a fish out of water. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

"No."

Wasn't that just heart wrenching? His next breath was physically painful and he was ready to just throw himself off the building without his web shooters from embarrassment. He might take Shiro out for his shit advice first though.

"But," Lance restarted, clearing his throat. "I would like to ask you on a proper date," His face flushed. "Yah know, if you want to go on one that is."

He stared Lance straight on, creating direct eye contact to see if there were any cracks. If there was any insincerity for where he was going to pull out a camera and tell him he's been pranked.

That also didn't happen. He's serious. He's goddamn serious and he's _shy_ about it. His eyes were averted down, glancing up from his feet every couple of seconds.

He's scared but he still did it.

Keith added that to the list of things he admired about Lance.

"Okay."

Of course when the guy of Keith's dreams asks him on a date that's his response. Fucking _okay_.

Either way Lance's head shot up, surprised smile on his face.

_"Really?"_

Keith nodded.

"So you- oh, okay," Lance grinned dazedly. "Wow, cool!"

They stared at each other for a few moments longer before it sunk in and they both fall into a small round of laughter. Albeit, it's mostly nervous and a sign of relief, but still, it was enough to break the meter thick wall of ice.

"I guess, I guess I'll see you Monday then?"

"Yeah. Don't forget to book."

Lance chuckled and shook his head. "No man, definitely won't forget the book." Lance nibbled at the bottom of his lips and Keith knew it wasn't supposed to be intended that way but it was probably one of the hottest things he'd ever seen in his life.

Keith needed to go before he did or said something dumb.

"Cool. I'll-" he pointed to his car, "-go."

"Bye Keith. Drive home safe."

He nodded, but he wouldn't be surprised if he crashed from being in hyper shock.

Lance walked inside his door and waved before Keith turned around. Unable to help himself he looked over his shoulder one more time and noticed Lance was still waiting.

As he turned back around he couldn't stop the grin forming on his own face.

Holy shit.

_Holy shit._

* * *

The drive home was a blur and when he got there it wasn't unexpected when Shiro started badgering him with questions.

"So was it a date?" He asked.

Keith shook his head. "No." He watched Shiro deflate. "But he asked me on one."

Shiro shot to his feet, practically jumping in the air with wide eyes. "_What?"_

Keith laughed, already starting to walk away because he knew this conversation was going to get real embarrassing real quick.

"Wait! _Keith_!" He shouted, chasing him down the hallway. "Tell me _everything_! As your legal guardian I demand you to tell me exactly what happened or... You're _grounded! _I have the power to arrest you if you don't tell me!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY JAMES STANS I HAD TO DO IT TO HIM
> 
> also hi klance? heck yeah
> 
> they're so fluffy and cute i love them


	3. Smitten Spider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we go! Last chapter of the first part to this series!   
also warn y'all when i say i can't write action like WOW

"So, in the end _I_ was the one he liked that spoke about to Spider-Man!" Keith ended his story to Pidge through the communication device as he swung his way towards Lance's corner shop.

There was slurping on the other end of the line, sounding like Pidge was sucking up the last dregs of her soda.

"It was about time you figured it out."

"What do you mean?" He asked as he reached a building, using the corner to kick off and gain speed as he flung himself through the gaps.

"I _mean _it was about time that you figured out that Lance has been giving you googly eyes for the past year."

Keith almost slammed into a window from shock. "What? You _knew_?"

There was a crunch and Keith could only assume she was now eating chips.

"It was pretty obvious. I had my suspicions for about a year but Hunk was the one who confirmed it for me two weeks ago. We bonded over watching you both pine."

"A _year!_" Keith shouted. "You knew for a _year _and you didn't tell me?"

"It was only a hunch. I was only certain when Hunk and I started to talk about how pathetic you are both are."

Keith grumbled to himself, rolling his eyes and considered where he could find a new best friend.

"Come on, Keith, there's no need for the silent treatment."

"You could've at least told me! I thought I had no hope!"

"Yeah, remember that time you stole my last Red Bull when we were studying for that Chem test?"

"That was two years ago!"

"Consider that debt now paid."

"Paid with what? My suffering?"

"Exactly."

Keith grumbled as he landed on top of the building that gave him the perfect view of Lance locking the shop's door.

"Well whatever, I'm logging off for the night to pick up Lance. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"Have fun walking your boyfriend home."

"He's not my-" there was a crackle insinuating Pidge had dropped from the line, "-boyfriend..."

Instead of dwelling on it he swung across the middle of the road and stopped outside the convenience store door.

Lance jolted upright, eyes wide for a moment, relaxing once he realised who it was. "Oh man Spidey, get ready to be so proud of your boy."

They easily went off into a stride, walking beside each other just as normal.

"You ask your crush out?" Keith asked, trying to sound neutral and not too guilty.

The reminder added a skip to Lance's step as he nodded. He still could barely believe Lance liked him. "Yes! Even better, I think they like me back."

Keith frowned. "Why do you only _think?_" Had Keith not made it clear enough?

"Well..." he trailed off, accentuating the pronunciation. "They didn't really say if they did, but they sounded excited when I asked so I'm taking that as a positive."

Idiot. Keith was an idiot. In his shock over the whole situation he hadn't even given Lance the response he deserved. As soon as he got the next chance alone with Lance he was going to make his feelings very clear.

"I'm sure he feels the same way as you do, He'd be crazy not to."

Lance turned his head to look at him for a long second. His eyes looked a little wider than usual, then they softened and replaced it with a smile.

"Thanks Spidey. Also, not to change the subject or anything, but I saw you stopped a bank robbery the other day and took on like three dudes at the same time. That was so cool."

Right, had been a mess. Afterwards the police were on his trail for half an hour before he swapped his suit out for his normal clothes and managed to lose them.

"Yeah, it was pretty intense."

"Are you kidding me dude? Someone got a video of the fight and you look like you kicked their butts without even trying! You were like _ka-chow-_"

A tingle split up Keith's spine, his hand moving instantaneously as he caught Lance's closed up fist from whamming him in the chest.

"Jesus!" Keith breathed out as Lance yelped, retracting his hand immediately.

"I'm sorry!" He apologised. "I wasn't thinking. I-"

"No, it's fine. Just," he rubbed his hand down the side of his face. "It's just..." How could he explain the Spidey Senses? "Just reflexes. I didn't want you getting hurt. That's all."

Lance pinched his brows together. "Uh, no offence buddy, like I know you are super buff but I don't think you're that hard to actually hurt me."

"No, actually, it's..." He groaned. He wasn't sure how to explain it without sounding super pretentious. "It's hard to explain. But punching me like punching a brick wall and the brick wall punching back. You hit me with force and you break your hand."

Lance appeared more impressed than freaked out. "For real?

"Yeah."

"That's dope," he laughed. Something clicked and his walking pace quickened. "Wait! Is that why you rarely ever do close combat? And always web baddies hands first? You don't want to hurt them?"

"You've... really done your homework."

Lance's hand went to his cheek, brushing some hair out of his face. "I guess you could say that. I kinda am good at noticing finer details. Plus I'm a fan."

Keith snorted out a huff of laughter through his nose. "Thanks. You're one of the only ones."

"I think you would be surprised by how many people are really on your side. One day you'll do something that will knock their socks off and they won't be able to ignore you anymore."

"Yeah, well I hope that doesn't come."

"How come?"

"Because that means something terrible has to happen that I have to stop. I don't want anyone to get hurt or potentially get injured just so I can get the gold star of approval from the public."

"So humble, so modest, what did we ever do to deserve you?" He teased, arms swinging by his sides. "Well then I agree with you. I hope nothing ever happens to make people like you."

"Ouch," he said which made Lance laugh.

"Think of it this way, you don't _need _the whole world like you. You only need one person to believe in you and that is yourself."

"When did you become so wise?"

He hummed, tapping his finger to his chin. "Maybe after my near death experience?" Keith had to laugh. He hadn't realised how dark Lance's sense of humor could get, and as someone as sarcastic and dry as Keith, he loved it. "But hey! You're doing one better than yourself because I believe in you too!"

Lance wouldn't be able to see it but Keith still smiled.

"Then that's all I need."

* * *

"I'm still mad at you," Keith grumbled as he stabbed at the salad Shiro had packed him. Bastard was way too much of a health freak. His anger was more directed to his traitorous friend though.

Pidge rolled her eyes. "It's not my fault you're oblivious. It's been a year, I thought you would eventually catch on."

"Well I-" Keith words got caught off by his own thoughts. "Wait, over a year?"

Pidge shrugged, eyes mainly focused on the robotics tech that Keith didn't understand in front of her. "Probably a little less. Around eight months or so. Why?"

Keith smiled to his lap. "That means he liked me before I got bitten by that spider."

"So? It's not like he knows."

"Yeah, but it means he liked me before... You know?" He gestured to himself.

"Before you lost the glasses and got ripped?"

Keith nodded.

It wasn't really essential. It just felt _nice_ knowing Lance actually noticed him before he changed. He looked at him when others didn't even acknowledge his existence. Since they'd come back to school Keith had noticed a big difference in how people approached him, how they looked and spoke to him. People looked at him not because they were snickering under their breaths but for a very different reason. But knowing Lance liked him before was...

It just felt... Validating.

"Heads up loverboy, the other loverboy is coming."

Keith perked up as he looked around the busy cafeteria to see if he could spot him. Eventually he did see Lance, with Hunk in tow approaching the table. His instant reaction was to panic at the thought of his crush coming towards him, but it soothed over as he remembered the weekend.

Lance liked him back and that was worth the confidence of a thousand men.

Lance waved as they caught each other's eyes, smile forming on his face.

"Prepare yourself for an overload of blushing and mild sexual tension in 3..." Keith shot her a dirty look. "2... 1..."

"Hey guys!" Lance greeting them both before gesturing to the empty seats. "These taken?"

"Only for you two," Pidge said, scooching deliberately along so that there was a space for Lance to sit next to Keith.

"Thanks!" He said before taking his seat. Hunk sat next to Pidge and they both went into a tangent of their robotics jargon. This gave Keith his opportunity to set things straight with his own feelings.

Taking initiative was probably a good first step.

"So, uh..." he wiped his hands on his jeans discreetly under the table. "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out after school? There's a nice coffee place nearby. If you can't-"

"That sounds great!" Lance said. "I won't be other stay crazy long since I have work tonight, but that sounds nice."

Hell. That was a lot easier and Keith thought it out to be. Why had he been so scared to do that? He wiped his hands against his jeans again.

"Cool."

"Cool," Lance echoed. He smiled and it filled Keith with so much joy that is heart rate raised. The thrill of knowing he was making Lance smile like that. All soft and a little shy.

_Jesus_.

Lance's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh! I almost forgot." He reached down under the table and grabbed his backpack. He unzipped it and rummaged his hand through blindly until he pulled out a paper bag. "I told you I wouldn't forget."

Hey opened the bag and noticed the book, clearly titled _Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda._

Lance put his books in paper bags so they wouldn't get damaged in his backpack. That was so _cute_ and so _Lance._

"Thanks," he said flipping the book over to look at the blurb. "Can't wait to read it."

He smiled smugly. "I can't wait to hear about how it's the best thing you've ever read. Also, FYI if you dog tag the corners I am never going to speak to you again."

"That's fair."

Keith had never been so happy to be threatened in his life and he'd been threatened a lot over the past summer.

* * *

"I'm paying," Keith said as he tapped his card against the machine, automatically paying for whatever the hell Lance ordered (the drink sounded so complex that he could barely remember a word of it other than knowing it was an iced something) and his own coffee. That was also alongside a brownie and a cheesecake to share because Lance couldn't pick which one he wanted. Keith didn't even like cheesecake, but he liked Lance, so that is all the reasoning he needed to buy it.

The cafe was your classic NYC cafe. Cozy interiors and the products having fancy names and saturated in the scent of coffee beans. They sat near the window, light seeping in and sunshine hitting Lance and all the right places, shining on his cheekbones and that dream jawline.

He was literally the guy of Keith's dreams and he could barely even believe that he liked him back.

Speaking of liking and confessions, he really wanted to make his apparent. He wanted Lance to not have a single doubt in his mind that Keith liked him.

Although he didn't want to jump straight into it. He needed to gradually glide himself otherwise he would lose his cool. Build himself up so he didn't fall flat on his face.

"Did you write the review article for the movie?" He asked once the drinks arrived.

"Yep! All done and dusted. I haven't sent it in to JJ to approve yet." He took a sip with a mischievous grin. "I always give him my articles at the latest possible moment, I like to make him squirm."

Keith snickered as he stirred his drink. "That's evil."

Lance shrugged, not looking all that fussed. "It's my passive aggressive way of getting back at him for being a total dickwad."

"That is true. You gotta hand it to him though, he's passionate."

Let's scoffed. "Passion is a word for it I guess."

"Speaking of the movie..." Keith started hesitating as Lance began to watch him closely. "When I dropped you off and...uh, we..."

"I asked you out," Lance cut in with the helpful answer to speed up the process. "And you said yes. Did you change your mind?"

"No, not at all!" He took a deep breath trying to suck in some courage. "I just wanted to clarify things. Make sure we're on the same boat and stuff."

Lance put his chin on his palm and rested it there. "And what boat is that?"

Keith exhaled. "I didn't really express how I thought about it. I want you to know that I like you. I have for a while." It was impossible to miss how Lance's face shifted. The corner of his lips curved upwards and his eyes drifted down. He was bashful, happy. "My answer didn't really reflect on that. I was kinda shocked. I just didn't want you to think I was just going with the flow by saying yes."

He nodded slowly, still smiling a little as he lifted his eyes.

"You're blunt, didn't really expect that. But if I didn't make it obvious enough myself, I like you too."

They both have to take a moment to look away from each other, smiling too dopey and cheeks red hot. Having it out in the open made it twice as more exciting but also just as embarrassing. Expressing feelings like this was awkward, you really put yourself out there by saying those simple words. But the fact that it was mutual made it so worth it.

"I can't believe you like me," Lance laughed, the noise floating through the air like how the scent of coffee did, natural and belonging. "I didn't think you liked me at all. You're always so quiet and short with me. Yet you always so lively with Pidge, you even speak more freely with Hunk." He laughed some more, wiping his eyes. "I thought you just found really annoying or something."

Lance continued to laugh to himself. His face hot as he rubbed his cheek and his knuckles.

"I don't think that. You make me nervous, that's all," Keith murmured the last part which made Lance laugh harder.

"That's adorable. Holy crow."

Keith used his mug to try to cover his red face as he drank.

Lance's laugh dwindled down to a giggle as he fanned himself with his hands, trying to cool down.

"Sorry, sorry! I'm not laughing at you. It's just kind of a really funny situation." He exhaled a shaky breath that was still dwindled with mirth. "But wow, you like me. You really know how to keep a secret, Kogane."

Keith sniggered into his mug. "You have no idea."

Time went fast with Lance which Keith thought wasn't on fair. Shouldn't time be slowing down so he could think he had forever? He'd rather that then it going so quickly that he could see the hands of the clock on the cafe wall moving faster with every second.

Lance was currently halfway through a story. It was a simple story about his older brothers and how they broke one of his mother's expensive teacups. The thing with Lance though is that he had such expression and enthusiasm that when he spoke it made any mundane story feel like the greatest novel ever written. He had a weird way of words, and loved putting backstory to every detail. Other people might have found it annoying or overkill, but Keith was basking in all in.

Suddenly, halfway through the story Lance stopped. His cheeks went a little pink and he sat back in his seat.

"And I have been talking for about five minutes straight," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "Sorry, I'm probably boring you to death."

Keith shook his head. "I don't mind. Your fun to listen to. You talk like you write."

Lance blinked rapidly, surprised, like no one had ever told him that before. He tried to force a smile to not twist it's way onto his face but it did anyway.

"Yes you say that, but I do want to listen to you more which requires me shutting up so you can get a word in so get to know you better. You're kind of an enigmatic so I don't know much about you."

"What do you mean?"

"You're one of the world's greatest mysteries. A wall you need to climb in order to get to know to the full extent. Pidge, she's probably the only person I've ever seen you be your true self around."

"And what's my _true self?_"

"Well," Lance started, tapping his nails against the table. "Considering how quiet in class you are, you're rather witty and your sense of humour is incredibly dry."

"Dry sounds... bad."

Lance smiled. "It's not." He didn't even give Keith a moment to react before he continued. "I only really know your surface info. Bottom tier stuff that everybody can see. You're incredibly smart, quiet, but I'm starting to believe that you're brooding rather than being insecure to speak up, you tend to only let minimal amount of people in, but you care more about those people than anything else in the world, have a weird ass haircut-"

"What's wrong with my-"

"It's okay, it somehow works for you. You live with your brother and you like photography. That's the bottom tier stuff. Surface layer. Everyone can see that and everybody knows that if they look at you longer than a second. I want to dig a little deeper in and get to know who you are. The stuff that actually matters."

Keith couldn't help but be floored.

Lance described all that as bottom tier common everyday knowledge, but he was so unaware that somebody had ever paid that much attention to him to even care to remember. The fact that he wanted to know even more was both intimidating and exciting.

"Well, then I want to get to know you beyond your surface layer information then too."

Lance seemed happy by that answer. "I'm glad we're on the same page then."

Keith smiled back and was going to say something else but was cut off by a buzz in his pocket. He tried his best to ignore it but the buzzing was persistent.

"It's okay, you can look. I won't be offended," Lance said. Keith gave a small closed smile as thanks and pulled out his phone to see Pidge's name.

The text she had sent clear as day.

**CODE RED**

Shit.

**CODE RED RED! LIKE DOUBLE RED!**

The sound of a siren and bright flashes gathered a chunk of people's attention as a police car zoomed past the cafe and down the street.

He looked back up to Lance. The guy who's been dreaming about for years and for some miraculous miracle liked him back and wanted to get to know him beyond his surface layer.

"I have to go," he breathed out and watched a range of emotions go over his face. It's started out as shocked and disappointment and confusion.

"Go? Like right now?" His face is back to being disappointed and _shit _of course Lance felt a bit rejected with Keith about to bolt.

"I'm so sorry," he said already getting to his feet.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, now back to confusion.

Keith nodded frantically. "Yep, yep! Everything is _fine, _just an issue with Shiro that I gotta help sort out."

The world hated him. He's finally got the chance to be with Lance and the world wanted to shove it in his face that he would probably never get there.

"Oh, yeah- I hope everything is okay. I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"Yeah I'll see you then!" He was already starting to move when he called out a final sorry as he reached the door.

From there it was sprint. He grabbed his phone out and called Pidge as he ran down the busy streets, pushing his way past people and ignoring their grumbling complaints.

"Pidge?" He said as she answered the call. "This better be really important because I just left Lance alone in a cafe like a total asshole-"

"You need to hurry up! This is definitely worth the time. There is a bus is dangling off the Brooklyn bridge."

"What the hell?" Keith spat as he ran down towards his street. "How the hell did that happen?"

"No clue. The police radio isn't working or releasing any information. We only know that the bus is dangling off."

Fuck.

"Do they know how many people are on the bus?"

Pidge was silent for a moment. "No clue."

Keith sprinted into his house, lucky that Shiro was out. The likelihood that he was heading to the same scene he was, was high. He glided and skidded to his room on the floor boards and pulled out his suit and mask at record speed.

Next move was for him to jump out the window and swing as fast as possible. He was lucky to be able to dodge all of that traffic. 

It was chaos when he reached the bridge. Cars were everywhere in a chaotic fashion and multiple police sirens had the whole bridge echo with it. People were out of their cars, police guarding off and securing the area and blocking off shards of glass.

He jumped up onto a pole so he could get a visual of the situation from a higher perspective. People called out to Spider-Man but he ignored it, instead his mind was too concerned with the situation at hand.

It didn't look good. The bus was a hair strand away from being off balance and falling down since the railings were destroyed, most likely on impact. There were burnout marks on the road but seemingly no other cars involved.

But that wasn't the biggest issue. Taking a closer at the bus from a distance he noticed there were flowers and giant bees painted on the side of the dangling vehicle.

"Pidge," Keith said, eyes wide. "Pidge it's an elementary school bus."

Even from here he could see kids faces inside, panicked. They weren't moving, probably fearing that it would topple the bus over.

"Oh my god Keith. Get them out!"

"I'm trying to figure that out," he snapped back in frustration. He didn't want one wrong move made because one wrong movement resulted in the death of a bunch of little kids.

The bus creaked a bit lower and people screamed on the bridge in horror.

"I've got an idea."

"Then you might want to hurry because the longer it takes the more stressed those kids are gonna be and start moving around and that's gonna cause it to fall down from being unbalanced."

"I'll be back with you in a sec. I'm going in."

"Good luck."

That was something Keith was definitely going to need.

See, the most logical idea would be to go behind the bus, web it, and then drag it back onto the bridge. But since the bus was dipped forward it was gonna get suck when it got to the front wheels.

It was a delicate situation for more than one reason.

One, the people who needed saving were children. Scared children who had no idea how to act or how to respond to the situation.

Two, one wrong move and it was gonna go down to the ocean and drown them all.

He webbed the structure he was observing from and dived down. Once close to the water he changed directions and swung back upwards on the other side. He did that a couple of times, going back and forth to make us some sort of hammock. A protective barrier from the ocean.

It wasn't a permanent solution, but it would give him time if the bus did manage to fall down. It was just a precaution. Because there was no way that bus was going down on his watch.

There was another creek and the bus dipped forward. The back of the bus started to raise upwards like a goddamn seesaw when Pidge started to shout out in panic.

He ignored her and jumped down to the bridge. One of Shiro's colleagues tried to grab him but Keith just shoved him out of the way. What did he think he was going to do? Do the finishing push?

He aimed so that both of his web shooters would shoot and hit the back of the bus, gripping on.

His ears were ringing by this stage with adrenaline and people shouting and screaming. Couldn't they just shut up for one moment so he could concentrate?

Now that he was here, he wasn't sure what to do next. Especially when he could see children's faces watching him from the back of the bus, fists pounding against the glass and tears spilling from their eyes.

A quick decision had him pulling both of the strings of web into his left hand, drag them both to the ground and web them to the road.

"What are you _doing_? That won't hold for long enough to-"

"It doesn't need to hold for long," Keith gritted out through his clenched teeth. "It just needs to hold long enough for me to get to the front of the bus so I can swing around and get it back on the bridge. I can't do anything when it's on that angle otherwise the front wheels are gonna get stuck when I try to pull it up."

"You need to work fast then. That's not going to hold a whole bus full of people for long."

Keith was already running to the edge of the bridge. "Covered."

He aimed for his web to attach to the front corner of the bus and he pulled. Since he webbed the back down it was now level. So when he pulled it by the front he only needed to drag it back to safety.

His sense only tingled for a quarter of a second before there was a deafening crack that Keith registered as web snapping. There were screams as the web he had stuck to the ground broke the bus started tipping forward a rapid pace. He let go of the web he had on the front of the bus and instead replaced it by shooting two out of his web shooters. They hit the side of the bus just before the bus hit the protective hammock. It was now completely airborne and dangling off the bridge, the only thing that stopped it from plummeting down was Keith's webs.

He ignored everyone's screaming and did the only thing he could think of in the situation.

He started to pull.

He grunted and used his climbing ability and focused it on his feet so he wouldn't slip and lose ground. He took a step back and stuck to the ground like glue, only moving when he wanted it to.

The burning in his arms felt like his shoulders were about to pop out of his socket at the weight.

Pidge being the mini scientist in the making had conducted endless experiments. Seeing how much he could lift and where he abilities stopped and started. He had never lifted a bus before. Especially one filled with people and the weight of their lives on his shoulders, not just the physical weight.

He grunted again as he moved both of the webs into his right hand. By doing that he could use his left to make more ground as he pulled up, shifting the weight between both hands. It was strenuous. He was breathing hard, could hear it inside the tight space of his mask. It was the only thing he could hear beside the sirens. Everyone else had fallen silent, holding their breaths as they waited.

He pulled and dragged. The natural adhesive stick of his body was highly appreciated, otherwise he would have one hell of a rope burn.

As the bus started to rise higher he needed to take steps back so he could gain ground. He stepped back and walked backwards towards the crowd who parted for him like the red sea. People watched with horrified, wide eyes and stayed the distance. Not even the police were in his way.

The top of the yellow bus started to come into view. He was going to need to web the roof so he could flip the bus back onto the bridge. But also needed to be careful because he didn't want the kids to get jostled around and break any bones.

  
But then again, a broken arm was nothing compared to falling off a bridge.

Holding the weight of the bus with his left hand he used his right to shoot out another string of web that stuck the roof. From there he dragged the right hand and was able to pull the bus back onto the bridge. A few more drags and the bus was back the surface. Maybe on its side, but better than in the water.

He let go of the webs.

The silence was deafening until a police officer raised his radio to his mouth and said the words "_the bus is now on safe"_ while another officer ran over to the bus and broke open the door.

Keith collapsed to his butt as kids started piling out of the bus. Some had scratches and a little bit of blood on their faces, arms with tears and snot down their faces but they were okay. They were okay.

"Holy shit Keith." Pidge whispered as he heaved, trying to regain his breath.

"Holy shit," Keith repeated back.

It wasn't until then that he realised that people were clapping and cheering. He looked over his shoulder at the people behind him. Most just civilians, passersby who saw the whole thing unfold. Somewhere emergency crews such as ambulances, police and Fire Brigade. There was a lot of them and they were all clapping for him.

"Holy shit Keith you just lifted a bus!" Pidge screeched in his ear and began to laugh hysterically. "Holy hell dude! I can't believe you pulled that off."

"Thanks for believing in me," he muttered, wishing he could take his mask off for some fresh air.

As Keith turned back around he saw feet in front of him. Eyes going up from the ground he saw Shiro. He was dressed in his police officer gear and had a hand extended out to him.

No officer had ever extended their hand out to Spider-Man before.

Keith cautiously took it and let his brother pull him to his feet. Shiro's expression was hard to read which was so uncommon for Keith. Usually he always knew what he was thinking. Now he wasn't sure if he was going to hug him or arrest him.

He didn't do either and instead shook Spider-Man's hand.

"You did good out there," Shiro said. "You saved all of them." They both glanced over to the ambulance where all the children were getting checked over. Some saw that Spider-Man was looking their way and waved excitedly in his direction.

Keith was so shocked that he didn't know what to do. "Wave back," Shiro smiled. "You're their hero. Remember that. You're a role model now."

Keith blinked and looked back to the children before raising his hand and waving. They cheered and they weren't the only ones. Adults called out and thanked him too.

Keith had been doing this for months and had never seen so many people react so positively to him. Usually he had to leave scenes early so he wouldn't get arrested by the cops for interfering. It was... overwhelming, exciting, but most of all it was _so _rewarding.

"If you're ever at a scene and I'm there," Shiro started, regaining his attention. "Just know that I'll be on your side. I'm not gonna put you in cuffs unless you deserve it."

Keith chuckled. "Thank you," he said and smiled despite no one would be able to see it.

Shiro patted his shoulder. It was firmer than what he did to Keith as his brother. "More like thank _you_. We'll see you around Spider-Man." And with that he turned around and walked back towards his colleagues, probably needing to be able to be there to help with the cleanup and re-organising of the cars.

That was Keith's out. Time to swing up back onto one of the polls and make his getaway. Before he left another round of cheers echoed along the bridge as he looked down at them. He grinned to himself, a small laugh leaving his lips.

"Now don't be getting a big head now," Pidge snickered. He knew that she was just as excited as he was about this.

"What? So I don't become like you?" He bit back.

"The only reason my head would be bigger than average is because my brain is so huge."

"For a smart person that's the dumbest shit I've ever had."

"Whatever Spider-Man, at least they give them a good exit show."

Keith chuckled before jumping off the pole, doing flip midair and then swinging himself across and off the bridge. The cheering was like thunder in his ears.

That was such a good feeling.

* * *

Keith was nervous to be to walk Lance home that night. He was mainly worried that maybe Lance would rant to Spider-Man about how his date flaked on him.

Lance was pacing outside the corner shop when he arrived. A perfect example of unease. Brows pinched together and his hands shoved in his pocket.

When Keith made his presence aware by jumping down from one of the roofs to the ground Lance's head spun around in his direction. Before Keith could even say hello Lance was running and then flinging himself at him. A moment later he realised Lance was hugging him,

Keith stumbled back a little, not because of the weight but just because he was so shocked. Lance squeezed him tightly and pushed his nose into the space between his neck and shoulder.

"Lance?" He called out, unsure where to put his own hands.

The silence was eerie and Lance just squeezed him tighter.

"The bus," he whispered.

Obviously Lance had seen the news about the incident. It didn't explain his reaction though-

"My niece and nephew were on that bus."

Keith felt every muscle in his body constrict and stiffen. His heart squeezed uncomfortably in his chest as he lost a breath.

Keith knew about Lance's niece and nephew from stories. They were close. Undeniably close. Lance loved those kids more than anything.

"Holy shit," Keith said and squeezed Lance back to reciprocate the hug. He didn't even want to think about how terrified Lance would've been when he found out what happened.

He could feel every shake and trimmer emanating from Lance's body. He was scared of what could've happened if Spider-Man hadn't been there.

Keith cradled the back of Lance's head, pushing him into the comfort of his shoulder. He exhaled again, long and controlled.

"They're okay?" He asked, trying to think over all the faces that he saw leaving that bus. Did any of them look like they could be related to Lance?

"Yeah, not a bruise or scratch. We have you to thank for that." He leaned back far enough to be able to look at his face but not far enough to leave his hold. "You saved twenty-six children. I don't think anyone will ever be able to thank you enough."

Keith wasn't sure what he could say to that. How are you supposed to respond to that? He felt that relief when watching the children walk out. But he didn't quite understand the impact until now.

Twenty-six children. Twenty-six children like now get to grow up with their families. Homes of twenty-six children that would still be complete. Homes that wouldn't be broken over heartbreak like his was when he lost his father and mother.

He stopped parents from losing the most precious people in their lives. He stopped children from losing their best friends. He stopped Christmas from feeling forever empty because there was a missing face.

He stopped it all, but still had no idea how to respond to the weight of his act.

"No amount of thank you's will ever be enough for what you did," Lance started again. "But I'll thank you over and over again anyway." He then smiled, it was a small with his raw motions from the day, but it was the best he had ever seen on his face.

"I..." He dropped his hands from holding Lance and took a step back. "I'm just glad they're okay."

Lance's smile deepened. Teeth now showing and eyes twinkling. He pursed his lips together smugly and then twisted on his heels and began walking in their regular direction.

"Everyone is more than okay. And it totally makes up for the fact you ditched me in the cafe."

Keith stop walking for a second. It was like he had been smashed over the head with a cold bucket and now ice was unthawing over his skull.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Well," Lance started. "You left me alone on our date which was pretty uncool, but then went off to save twenty-six children and two included my family, so we're all good."

Keith's brain was frozen over, cold sweat numbing his fingers and anxiety high in his gut.

"Lance I think you've got the wrong idea," Keith managed to say. Was this some sort of sick joke? There was no way in hell Lance knew. How could he? Keith hadn't told him and Pidge sure as hell hadn't either.

"I think you've forgotten this one small detail about me Spidey," Lance continued, Hands behind his back as he innocently strolled down the street. "I told you I want to be a journalist."

"Well, yeah I do remember-"

"Then you must know that journalists tend to be perspective, think about the small details. I noticed them. Connect the dots." He paused and looked up at Keith for the soft smile. "You've left a lot of dots around."

Keith's mouth went dry.

"I have three options that would make sense with my dots. One is that you are some random guy that I don't know and I'm about to make a fool out of myself in front of, the other is you're a stalker and the final one is that you're the guy I've been crushing on for a good 10 months."

How in the hell-

"Clue one," Lance said raising his index finger. "Said crush of mine came back super ripped, no glasses and grizzled after summer break, the same summer holidays that Spider-Man just happened to debut." He twirled his finger around as he thought. "This one could be purely coincidental, _or _it could relate to you when you told me you becoming Spider-Man was an accident. Food for thought."

Hey lifted another finger.

"Clue two, you manage to beat James in the strength competition. Not impossible, but you did it pretty easy. You didn't even break a sweat. But that's not what makes it obvious."

Keith opened his mouth but words never came out before Lance continued.

"What made it obvious was when James tried to fight you. You dodged out of the way and wouldn't let him hit you, nor did you hit back. This could be just your nature, not wanting to hurt anyone or get hurt. But it also made sense to when I went to punch Spider-Man and you stopped me because you didn't want me to break my hand. Again, could be coincidence. Very highly likely. So far my dots are purely coincidences that _could_ work, not pure evidence."

Despite it, Keith wasn't sure how he could deny all this stuff and just leave it to coincidence.

"There was also the fact Spider-Man knew my crush was a boy. I never told him I'm bisexual, and even then, stereotypically you would assume I was dating a girl, unless you knew _who_ I was dating."

Lance walked them down into a secluded street. He faced Keith again one last finger.

"And what really was the cherry on top," he paused, making its heart right skyrocket. "My crush drove me home. He'd never been to my house before. Spider-Man on the other hand has been to my house heaps of times,

Keith was a fucking idiot. That last one really was a doozy. How can he be so stupid to make a slip up like that?

There was a whole line of silence. He was stunned and tingling in shock.

Lance had backed him into a corner.

"Those are my deductions. I'm not gonna force you to tell me if they're correct or not. We can just pretend this never happened, go back to our lives and I'll spend my days wondering. I'm not gonna hound you for an answer. And if it's the off chance you are who I think you are, I'll pretend I never asked and we can continue going on like we have been. I'll never bring it up again."

Keith stood there like a stunned rabbit. This was the moment, wasn't it? He could say it was all a crazy coincidence but what about after? Lance insinuated that _Keith _was Spider-Man. How was he supposed to act like that never happened the next time he looked him in the eye?

Lance nibbled on his lip nervously. He noticed him taking deep breaths but doubted he was more nervous than Keith at this moment in time.

Could they really just pretend this never happened? Deny it and Lance would just accept it like that?

"I..." He still couldn't think of what to do.

Lance seemed to notice the weight of the accusation and smiled kindly.

"It's okay, whoever you are it's okay. You owe me nothing, including revealing your identity to me. I just wanted you to know."

There was silence. And in that silence Keith moved forward, one step, two steps closer. It was dark in the quiet street. They were echoes of footsteps in the distance and laughs of people but nowhere close enough to see them. Keith wasn't gonna bother to take that chance and pulled Lance down an empty alleyway.

He was still close enough to Lance to notice the faintest of freckles on his cheeks. He swore they never existed before tonight but maybe that was just because he'd never been this close.

Keith let go of a breath and grabbed each of Lance's hands.

For him it was a bold move. Even Lance looked a little taken aback as Keith raised them upwards to his neck to the edge of his mask. Lance stared, not sure what was intended by the action.

"You can take it off if you want," he whispered. He almost felt the way Lancers hands retracted slightly, like he hadn't been expecting this outcome and wasn't sure if he was ready for it.

"Are you sure?"

"Are _you _sure?" Keith said back. "I've told you this before and I wasn't joking around about it. You could get yourself into some nasty shit by knowing this. I won't stop you though, just know it's your choice."

Lance bit his lip as he nodded, obviously seriously taking in that part.

"I told the guy I like I wanted to get to know him below the surface layer. I think I'm willing to take on all of you, not just a part of it."

Shit. Lance really liked him.

He began to peel off the mask. He didn't do it like that bandaid saying; fast and ruthless. He did it slowly, careful as it went up his neck and over his chin, pulled up to his nose and then finally over his eyes and off his head.

When Keith opened his eyes he saw Lance split into a grin. A small laugh left his mouth, a little shocked but humoured by the whole thing.

"Hi," Keith said to break the silence.

"Hi," Lance replied, still smiling. His thumb touched the warm skin of his jaw that had been covered moments ago. "I am, well I can't..." He shook his head to himself. "_Wow_."

Of course this was a lot to take in. It wasn't every day that the guy you were dating happened to be Spider-Man.

"So... is this a deal breaker?" Keith asked. He wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want to date someone with so much baggage. Lance covered his mouth with his hand as he laughed.

"No," he chuckled. "Not at all."

Keith nodded. He felt so naked without his mask. "Okay... Cool." He wasn't sure what to say now. What the hell are you supposed to say? "I bet you have a few questions."

"I have a few. Maybe you can answer them sometime... lunch? Brunch? Any meal of the day? You don't even need to have food if you don't want to! You could just-"

"Lance, you're rambling," Keith chuckled, smirking to himself as Lance blushed.

He took a deep breath for composure. "Date? Maybe you could explain over a date. Preferably one that doesn't get interrupted."

Keith couldn't hold back the grin that Lance had caused. "I can explain on a date."

* * *

**One Month Later**

"Nope! Nope, nope! Nah-uh! _No _thank you!"

"Don't be a baby," Keith teased. Lance gaped at him, slamming his locker shut and walking down the school hallway as everyone made a move to leave after the final bell.

"I'm not being a baby! I don't want to _die_!"

"I do it every day."

"And last month you lifted a bus. Do you see me casually lifting buses? No. No you do not."

Watching Lance pretty much run away from him was so funny that it was definitely worth it when Pidge nearly murdered him when he told her that Lance had figured out his Spidey secret.

"It's not like I'm gonna let you fall. I can even web us together if you want-"

"No way Kogane! There is no way you can get me to go up in the sky and swing in between the buildings like a psycho!" He exclaimed in a hushed whisper so nobody could hear as he threw his arms up in the air.

Time to bring out the big guns.

"But I planned something for you. Like a little picnic and stuff on one of the rooves. It has a really nice view up there. I thought you might want to watch the sunset."

Lance's eye twitched.

Keith has been dating Lance for a solid month and knew sunsets and romance were both things he enjoyed. Putting the two together was a killer combo.

"Can't we just go up in elevator?" Lance whined. "I'll even take stairs."

"You're the one who told me I had to try everything once before I decided I didn't like it," Keith said, throwing Lance's words back into his face as they left the school grounds walking side by side, the tips of their fingers grazing each other's occasionally.

"I was talking about spicy food! Not going Spidey mode and flying in the air!"

"We wouldn't be flying. We'd be swinging. I can't fly."

"You know, I miss the days when you were too scared to talk to me. You're mean."

"You're the one who said you wanted to get to know me," Keith said, unbothered by the comment. Lance said that type of shit all the time but he knew he didn't mean it.

"That's when I thought you were sweetheart! Now you're peer pressuring me!" Keith couldn't help but laugh.

Lance was right in that sense. They both had opened up to each other in the month they had been dating. He didn't feel quite so inadequate when he realised Lance was just as nervous about the whole thing as he was. Keith stopped seeing him this unreachable God because that was too much pressure to put on another person. Lance was a goofy teenage boy who liked Beyoncé and could tell you 101 facts about sharks.

Keith liked silly, clingy and a bit of a drama queen Lance way better than the person that had built-up in his head. Built up in his head Lance had nothing on the real one.

And despite Lance's words, he could tell he was much happier when Keith started to open up to him too. To act on himself, or how he acted with Pidge, if they were using his exact words.

Keith looked up and noticed the squeals and laughter of younger children. Currently they were walking past Midtown elementary school. The same school that had the bus that Keith had saved.

"Have you seen the drawings they did?" Lance asked, stepping closer to him with a hint of pride in his voice.

"It's hard to miss when I'm swinging over."

Since there was no official way to contact Spider-Man the children wanted to do something to say thank you. So on the outdoor basketball court they had drawn hundreds of pictures of Spider-Man with chalk and thank you messages. Keith had almost been brought to tears when he saw it for the first time (not that he had told anyone that).

The story of him saving the kids on the bus had exploded all over the world. It had brought more attention to Spider-Man and people were starting to really like and respect him. He didn't even need to hide from the police that much anymore. Not even Shiro had said a bad word about him in front of Keith since.

So yeah, you could say things were going pretty well for Keith.

They continued to walk down the street until Lance reached his bus stop.

"I'll see you later?" Lance asked rolling onto his toes, leaning closer to Keith with a grin.

"Yeah. Do you wanna meet here?"

"Right here, right at this bus stop," Lance agreed as his bus started driving around the corner. "Don't be expecting me to go swinging tonight. I like to keep my body intact and my hair nice."

"We will see," Keith said, amused as Lance playfully rolled his eyes.

His bus pulled up and he departed with a chaste kiss on Keith's cheek. He pulled a back with a whispered '_see you later Spidey'_, before moving to board his bus, leaving Keith alone with a cheek that felt like it was in flames.

Keith might now be able to hold a conversation with Lance, but he was still as useless as ever whenever it came to simple displays of affection.

It was enough to have him smiling the whole way home.

He walked home smiling a lot these days.

* * *

Keith waited on top of the light pole for Lance's bus to arrive.

When he did arrive, he waited for the other people who got off on the same stop to leave before lowering himself upside down. Lance's craned his neck up, the light illuminated his face to show he was smiling.

"Oh hi Spidey, happen to see my date lurking around? He's about this height, kinda broody with a mullet and-" He swung himself forward on the web to grab Lance and drag him up. It was a sneak attack, a dirty tactic to get Lance where he wanted him.

_"Keith!"_ He shrieked, digging his nails into his bicep to hold on for dear life. He looked down off the top of the pole, questioning how injured he might get if he fell.

"Ready?"

"Date, yes. Falling to my death? No."

"You're not gonna fall. Hold on and trust me."

"Hold on... Where? It's not like there are any handle bars on this ride."

"Like... Umm...". He'd never taken anyone swinging before for a joyride. And yeah, Lance and Keith had been dating for a while now but the physical affection had never gone past holding hands or resting their heads against the other shoulder while watching a movie. He hadn't thought he would get this far. "Here," he grabbed his hands, put them on his shoulders before lifting him up by the waist.

Lance made a little noise, probably surprised that Keith could lift him like a ragdoll.

It was a slightly awkward moment to manoeuvre him so that he was comfortable and so it would be safe. The pose was like a koala, arms and legs wrapped around tightly.

"That alright?" Lance nodded his response. "Okay, cool. I'm gonna jump off and just remember to not let go okay?"

Lance gripped onto him tighter.

"You don't have to worry about that. There is no way in hell I'm letting go."

"Alright I'm gonna jump them. Three..."

"If I die my mama is gonna kick your-"

"Two..."

"Oh my god I just realised we're already up so high and we're not even close to the skyscrapers holy-"

Keith jumped off the light pole and quickly shot his web. It was different from swinging by himself. It felt like driving a bigger car, heavier, harder to manoeuvre. But luckily easily adaptable.

"Holy shit! Holy fuck, fuck, _fuck_!" Lance screamed into his ear. "We're going to _die!_"

"We are not going to die," Keith shouted over the wind.

He let go of a web so he could shoot out another, but this meant a small drop before rising again. Lance screamed like he was descending to hell before being propelled back up.

If it were Keith alone, he'd probably indulge in a detour or two, but if he went any longer Lance was probably going to burst his eardrum. It didn't take him much longer before reaching the building where he had planned the date.

He hadn't been joking when he said he'd set up a cute little date. Picnic basket with Chinese take-out and blankets, in the perfect position to watch the sun set.

Keith wouldn't lie, he was pretty proud of himself.

Lance looked more than grateful to be back on his feet. Cheeks pink and hair tousled by the wind. He grabbed Keith's two shoulders as he regained his bearings and his legs stopped wobbling.

"That was like Disney World on steroids," he murmured as he straightened himself up.

"I'll make sure we do a flip next time then."

Lance narrowed his eyes and pointed an authoritative finger at him as Keith pulled his mask off. "There is never gonna be a next time. Holy crackers I never knew how much of an adrenaline junkie you are. I feel like my heart is going to explode it's going so fast. Here-"

He grabbed Keith's hand and pressed them to his chest. It was a little surprising but he listened and felt anyway. There was no exaggeration, Keith could feel his heart pumping and would've honestly been a little worried if Lance wasn't smiling.

They caught each other staring and bashfully turned away.

They knew that liked each other, it was plainly obvious in the proximity of when they walked and the way their fingers brushed against together with each step and how they would lean in close and spoke in whispers that felt like secrets.

It was so apparent to themselves and everyone else, but still they were only just 16. Of course they were going to blush and stammer their way through every obstacle of affection. They hadn't even shared their first kiss yet. What was there to expect?

"Dude, I don't know about you but I'm starving." Lance finally spoke up, looking a little less flustered. "I'm hoping you got my order right."

Keith had Lance coffee order memorised in his brain despite how ridiculously complex it was, he's pretty damn sure he got his fried shrimp with sweet and sour noodles correct.

He assumed he got it smack bang when Lance smiled at the plastic container Keith gave him.

"You know," he said as he stabbed his plastic fork into his noodles. "Considering I almost had to die to get here-"

Keith rolled his eyes. One thing had learnt about Lance was that he was probably one of the most over dramatic people he had ever met. He still thought it was pretty endearing though because by _god_ was Keith whipped.

"But I must say, this is like, really nice. Super nice actually. I'm glad you brought me here."

Keith didn't turn away this time. He didn't want to do himself the disjustice of not looking directly at Lance as he spoke.

"In fact," Lance continued. "You're just really nice in general. My female friends always talk about how guys just want their ass or because they're bored and are dating about a thousand other girls or whatever and I listen to them and I seriously can't relate." He let out a laugh, the wind picking up in that same second and moving some of Lance's hair in front of his eyes. He was quick to put back behind his ear. "I say that and they tell me how lucky I am to have someone who actually gives a shit. Then I should snatch you up and make it official."

Keith was now the one with the erratic heartbeat. It was hard to ignore the thumping in his ears he listened. Was he...?

Lance took a deep breath, exhaled, and tried not to look like he was fidgeting. He was nervous.

Another thing that Keith had learnt in their month of smooth sailing and steadiness was Lance was probably not as confident as he made himself out to be. He had his own set of insecurities that Keith had still yet to unravel and deserved comforting just as much as anyone did.

Keith smiled and put his hand on top of Lance's on the picnic blanket. It was a little bit out of comfort zone for him, but for Lance the encouragement seemed to be enough.

"So do you want to make it official? Be my boyfriend?"

"Yeah," he said without missing a beat. "Yeah," he repeated.

Lance laughed. "Did you even think about it!"

"Didn't need to."

It's the truth and Lance seemed to like it. His mouth twitched into a smile that was only could be described as excitement.

"Sweet! Wow, that was easy. I feel like I should just-" he leaned a little closer and hesitated, probably at seeing the surprise on Keith's face because _oh fuck _Lance was going to_ kiss him._

Except he stopped, obviously unsure of what to do now that they were halfway there. They're both stupidly awkward in their own inexperienced ways. Keith shrank into himself while Lance was a nervous rambler. It was ironic how nicely they balanced each other out.

So Keith took the chance. He placed a hand on Lance's jaw and leaned in until there was no space separating them. His lips were soft and warm and a little overwhelming because now he's here -his lips on Lance's- Keith's not sure what he should do. It's not like he's kissed anyone before.

Lance seemed to somewhat know though, because he leaned in a little closer, tilting his head and moved his lips against his.

Oh yeah, that's nice.

It's only a few seconds (a few very nice seconds) before they pulled back. Both of them had rosy cheeks and silly smiles that could only be seen from two giddy teenagers. Because even under all the responsibility of being Spider-Man, Keith was still really only a kid who was trying his best.

He's not naive though, they're going to face a lot of challenges because of this responsibility. But Keith also felt like he was going to be a better person and a better Spider-Man because of Lance too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this!!! It was super fun to right and I really wanna add to the series so if you want to read more you can subscribe to the series or user subscribe to my so you can make sure you don't miss it for when it comes out!!! Also suggestions of what you might like to see in this Spider-Man AU is also cool!
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and I'll see you next time or you can find me on tumblr and instagram (with the same username, aka iwriteshipsnotsailthem)
> 
> Love you all 💕

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked it and that I'll see you next next weekend for the second chapter :)
> 
> You can find me on Instagram and tumblr with the username iwriteshipsnotsailthem


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